X‐ray crystallography of peptides: The contributions of the Italian laboratories

The review article summarizes the most relevant solid state structural and conformational results obtained in the laboratories involved in Italy in the studies of synthetic and natural peptides by x‐ray diffraction analyses. Some of the topics will include research studies carried out in other European countries, whereas in other cases studies carried out in Italy will be included in other review articles included in this volume. The review deals with peptides containing symmetrically achiral and unsymmetrically chiral C α,α ‐dialkylated glycine residues, peptides containing β‐alanine residues, α,β‐dehydroamino acid residues, and aminosuccinyl residues, peptides containing the thioamide surrogate, heterochiral peptides and several bioactive peptides systems with the proposed relationships between function and structure. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.