Studies on the conformation of amino acids VIII. Backbone and side-chain conformations of C-terminal residues in peptides

Abstract

This paper deals with the classical energy calculations to predict the preferred conformations of C-terminal residues in polypeptide chains. The effects of β, γ and δ-atoms on the backbone conformation are discussed. The side-chain conformations about the C^α---C^β and C^β---C^γ bonds are nearly the same as those predicted for free amino acids and those for N-terminal residues. The results suggest that the preferred backbone conformations are independent of the presence and nature of side-group atoms beyond the γ-atom and vice versa.