How Cations Change Peptide Structure

TL;DR

This study investigates how Li+ and Na+ cations influence peptide structures, revealing significant conformational changes and assessing the accuracy of computational models against experimental data.

Contribution

It provides detailed insights into cation-peptide interactions and evaluates the predictive capabilities of various computational methods.

Findings

Li+ and Na+ drastically alter peptide backbone conformations

Different cations can have distinct effects on the same peptide

Current density functionals show varying accuracy in modeling these interactions

Abstract

Specific interactions between cations and proteins have a strong impact on peptide and protein structure. We here shed light on the nature of the underlying interactions, especially regarding the effects on the polyamide backbone structure. To do so, we compare the conformational ensembles of model peptides in isolation and in the presence of either Li+ or Na+ cations by state-of-the-art density-functional theory (including van der Waals effects) and gas-phase infrared spectroscopy. These monovalent cations have a drastic effect on the local backbone conformation of turn-forming peptides, by disruption of the H bonding networks and the resulting severe distortion of the backbone conformations. In fact, Li+ and Na+ can even have different conformational effects on the same peptide. We also assess the predictive power of current approximate density functionals for peptide-cation systems and compare to results from established protein force fields as well as to high-level quantum chemistry (CCSD(T)).