Dipeptide nanotubes, with n-terminally located omega-amino acid residues, that are stable proteolytically, thermally, and over a wide range of pH

Two dipeptides containing an N-terminally positioned omega-amino acid residue (beta-alanine/delta-amino valeric acid) self-assembles to form nanotubes in the solid state as well as in aqueous solution. In spite of having hollow nanotubular structures in the solid state and in solution, their self-assembling nature in these two states are different and this leads to the formation of different internal diameters of these nanotubes in solution and in solid state structure. These nanotubes are stable proteolytically, thermally, and over a wide range of pH values (1-13). The role of water molecules in nanotube formation has been investigated in the solid state. These nanotubes can be considered as a new class of dipeptide nanotubes as they are consisting of N-terminally located protease resistant omega-amino acid residues and C-terminally positioned alpha-amino acid residues. These dipeptides can form an interesting class of short peptidic structure that can give rise to stable nanotubular structure upon self-assembly and these nanotubes can be explored in future for potential nanotechnological applications

Effects of Structural Differences on the NMR Chemical Shifts in Isostructural Dipeptides

Porous crystalline dipeptides have gained recent attention for their potential as gas-storage materials. Within this large class is a group of dipeptides containing alanine, valine, and isoleucine with very similar crystal structures. We report the 13C (carbonyl and Cα) and 15N (amine and amide) solid-state NMR isotropic chemical shifts in a series of seven such isostructural porous dipeptides as well as shift tensor data for the carbonyl and amide sites. Using their known crystal structures and aided by ab initio quantum chemical calculations for the resonance assignments, we elucidate trends relating local structure, hydrogen-bonding patterns, and chemical shift. We find good correlation between the backbone dihedral angles and the Cα1 and Cα2 shifts. For the C1 shift tensor, the δ11 value shifts downfield as the hydrogen-bond distance increases, δ22 shifts upfield, and δ33 shows little variation. The C2 shift tensor shows no appreciable correlation with structural parameters. For the N2 tensor, δ11 shows little dependence on the hydrogen-bond length, whereas δ22 and δ33 both show a decrease in shielding as the hydrogen bond shortens. Our analysis teases apart some, but not all, structural contributors to the observed differences the solid-state NMR chemical shifts