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PROTEIN FOLDING

How the α-helix got its name

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 23, page 165 (2022)Cite this article

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Seventy years ago, Linus Pauling and Robert Corey published two papers on two hydrogen-bonded configurations of the polypeptide chain. The initial note in the J. Am. Chem. Soc. was followed four months later by a more detailed report (written with Herman Branson) in the Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA (PNAS). Remarkably, the protein structure models were referred to as ‘spiral’ configurations in the first paper, but as ‘helical’ configurations in the second paper. What prompted this name change and why does it matter?

The α-helix is a testament to the success of chemical model building. The dimensions and intra-chain H-bonding of this common secondary structure motif of proteins were correctly devised ten years before the advent of the first experimentally determined 3D structure of a protein. Pauling and associates were so certain of their triumph, that they declared in the PNAS paper in regard to previously published models by others: “None of these authors proposed either our 3.7-residue helix or our 5.1-residue helix. On the other hand, we would eliminate, by our basic postulates, all of the structures proposed by them.”

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References

Original articles

  • Pauling, L. & Corey, R. B. Two hydrogen-bonded spiral configurations of the polypeptide chain. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 72, 5346 (1950)

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  • Pauling, L. et al. The structure of proteins: two hydrogen-bonded helical configurations of the polypeptide chain. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 37, 205–211 (1951)

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Related articles

  • Dunitz, J. D. Pauling’s left-handed α-helix. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 40, 4167–4173 (2001)

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  • Eisenberg, D. The discovery of the α-helix and β-sheet, the principle structural features of proteins. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 100, 11207–11210 (2003)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    Martin Egli

  2. Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Shuguang Zhang

Authors
  1. Martin Egli
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  2. Shuguang Zhang
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Correspondence to Martin Egli or Shuguang Zhang.

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Egli, M., Zhang, S. How the α-helix got its name. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 23, 165 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-021-00449-4

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