X-ray studies on crystalline complexes involving amino acids and peptides. XXXVII. Novel aggregation patterns and effect of chirality in the complexes of DL- and L-lysine with glutaric acid.

The complexes of glutaric acid with DL-lysine contain singly positively charged zwitterionic lysinium ions and singly negatively charged semi-glutarate ions. Both the ions exhibit different conformations in the two complexes. The structures contain head-to-tail sequences of amino acids. However, the aggregation patterns in the two complexes are entirely different, demonstrating the effect of chirality on molecular aggregation. These patterns also turn out to be different from those so far observed, in structures containing amino acids. The structures contain characteristic interaction patterns involving linear arrays of alternating amino and carboxylate groups.