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Influence of temperature on the helix sense of several polyamino acids
Author(s) -
Lotan N.,
Momany F. A.,
Yan J. F.,
Vanderkooi G.,
Scheraga H. A.
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
biopolymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1097-0282
pISSN - 0006-3525
DOI - 10.1002/bip.1969.360080103
Subject(s) - intramolecular force , chemistry , intermolecular force , radius , sense (electronics) , helix (gastropod) , hydrogen atom , atom (system on chip) , hydrogen bond , thermodynamics , chemical physics , hydrogen , function (biology) , stereochemistry , physics , molecule , organic chemistry , ecology , alkyl , computer security , evolutionary biology , snail , computer science , biology , embedded system
An increase in temperature causes an increase in the amplitudes of intramolecular and intermolecular motions and mainfests itself as an increase in the effective radii of the various atoms, especially hydrogen atoms. If one uses a Lennard‐Jones 6‐12 potential function to account for nonbonded interactions, this increase in the radius of the hydrogen atom is equivalent to a modification of the coefficient of the repulsive part of the Lennard‐Jones potential. Accordingly, this effect of increasing temperature on the helix sense of several polyamino acids is computed by allowing the effective radius of the hydrogen atom to increase. It is found that the preferred sense of several polyamino acid helices changes from right‐ to left‐handed as the temperature is increased. This accounts for recent experimental observations of changes in helix sense with temperature.