Solvent-dependent structural features of the membrane active peptide trichotoxin A40 as reflected in its dielectric dispersion.

The dielectric dispersion of trichotoxin A40 in solvents of diverse lipophilicity (i.e. n-octanol, dioxane and mixtures of these) has been measured between 100 kHz and 50 MHz. In pure octanol also the weight average molecular weight and the concentration dependence of the circular dichroism spectrum were determined. An analysis of the data leads to the conclusion that in octanol an appreciable amount of the solute exists as single monomeric particles which are about 30 A long and 12.5 A in diameter. There is a dipole moment parallel to the long axis. In addition the evidence points at the presence of small aggregates (mainly dimers and trimers) formed by some kind of head-to-tail association. Evidently dioxane added to octanol favors a different structure of the trichotoxin monomer. It is apparently involved in another aggregation process resulting in aggregates of large size but comparatively low dipole moments.