Lipid-induced ordered conformation of some peptide hormones and bioactive oligopeptides: predominance of helix over beta form.

The conformation of several naturally occurring peptide hormones and bioactive oligopeptides in phospholipid solutions was studied by circular dichroism. Phosphatidylcholine induced a partial helix in human gastrin I at neutral pH, but phosphatidylserine did not unless the five consecutive glutamic acid residues in gastrin were protonated. Reduced somatostatin with two lysines and substance P with one arginine and one lysine were partially helical in phosphatidylserine, but not phosphatidylcholine, solution. Both lipids induced a helical conformation in glucagon and its COOH-terminal fragment (19-29) probably because the helical segment is primarily located at the uncharged COOH terminus. Thus, polypeptides with a helix-forming potential can have the helical conformation only when the peptides carry no charge or charges opposite to those on the polar head of the lipid. Renin substrate, which has potentials for the beta form and beta turn, seemed to form a mixture of the two conformations in phosphatidylserine solution. Angiotensin I with a strong probability for the beta form adopted the beta form in phosphatidylserine solution and sleep peptide with no structure-forming potential remained unordered in lipid solutions. The helix usually predominated over the beta form in lipid solutions if the peptide has potentials for both conformations. This could account for the preponderance of helices in bacteriorhodopsin of the purple membrane, which according to its amino acid sequence would have favored the beta form.