Conformational changes in alamethicin associated with substitution of its alpha-methylalanines with leucines: a FTIR spectroscopic analysis and correlation with channel kinetics.

Alamethicin, a 20 residue-long peptaibol remains a favorite high voltage-dependent channel-forming peptide. However, the structural significance of its abundant noncoded residues (alpha-methylalanine or Aib) for its ion channel activity remains unknown, although a previous study showed that replacement of all Aib residues with leucines preserved the essential channel behavior except for much faster single-channel events. To correlate these functional properties with structural data, here we compare the secondary structures of an alamethicin derivative where all the eight Aibs were replaced by leucines and the native alamethicin. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of these peptides were recorded in methanol and in aqueous phospholipid membranes. Results obtained show a significant conformational change in alamethicin upon substitution of its Aib residues with Leu. The amide I band occurs at a lower frequency for the Leu-derivative indicating that its alpha-helices are involved in stronger hydrogen-bonding. In addition, the structure of the Leu-derivative is quite sensitive to membrane fluidity changes. The amide I band shifts to higher frequencies when the lipids are in the fluid phase. This indicates either a decreased solvation due to a more complete peptide insertion or a peptide stretching to match the full thickness of the bilayer. These results contribute to explain the fast single-channel kinetics displayed by the Leu-derivative.