Determination of individual side-chain conformations, tertiary conformations, and molecular topography of tyrocidine A from scalar coupling constants and chemical shifts.

We report for the decapeptide tyrocidine A: (a) H alpha and H beta chemical shifts and scalar coupling constants for most residues of tyrocidine A in methanol-d4 and dimethyl-d6 sulfoxide (Me2so-d6) and the H alpha and H beta chemical shifts for other residues; (b) scalar coupling constants 3J alpha beta for nine side chains in methanol-d4 but only seven side chains in Me2SO-d6, due to chemical shift degeneracy; the Gln9 and Tyr10 side chains in methanol-d4 were only approximately analyzed; (c) a total spin-spin analysis of Pro5 in Me2SO-d6 and, partly by comparison, also in methanol-d4; (d) conversion of 3J alpha beta values to side-chain conformations for all residues in methanol-d4; comparisons, where possible, led to the conclusion that side-chain conformations are similar in methanol-d4 and Me2SO-d6; (e) an absolute conformational analysis of Pro5 from 3J values and a method of assigning all pro-R,S protons; Pro5 has a Ramachandran B, C2-Cexo-Cendo conformation; (f) chi 1, chi 2 conformations of several aromatic residues based upon proton-chromophore distance measurement from anomalous chemical shifts and Johnson-Bovey diagrams; (g) pro-R and pro-S assignments of H beta's from anomalous chemical shifts, high-temperature dependence of anomalous chemical shifts, and backbone side-chain nuclear Overhauser effects; (h) most tertiary conformations of the whole tyrocidine A molecule possessing residues 4--8 and 10 in highly preferred (ca. 90%) chi 1 conformations, but residues 1--3 and 9 having at least two chi 1 rotamers; (2) description of three topographical regions of the molecule--a hydrophobic region, a flat hydrophilic surface on the other side of the molecule, and a hydrophilic region consisting of two peptide backbone units and the side chains of Asn8, Gln9, and Tyr10; (j) proposed side chain, beta-turn, and beta-pleated sheet conformations that readily account for all "normal" and anomalous chemical shifts.