Structure and dynamics of motilin. Time-resolved fluorescence of peptide hormone with single tyrosine residue.

Time-resolved fluorescence and CD spectroscopy were used to characterize the structure and dynamics of the peptide hormone motilin with a single tyrosine residue among its 22 amino acids. CD spectroscopy showed that secondary structure is independent of concentration in the range 1 x 10(-5)-2.6 x 10(-4) M, and of the presence of DOPC lipid vesicles, but is strongly induced by addition of hexafluoroisopropanol. The fluorescence studies with tyrosine as the intrinsic fluorophore, performed at the MAX synchrotron laboratory at Lund, showed that three fluorescence lifetimes (0.4 ns, 1.7 ns and 3.6 ns at 20 degrees C) and two rotational correlation times (0.4 ns and 5 ns at 20 degrees C) were needed to account for the data. The different decay times are interpreted as representing ground-state rotamers interconverting slowly on the ns time scale. The rotational correlation times are ascribed to local angular motion of the tyrosyl ring, and global motion of the whole peptide, respectively.