Orientations of helical peptides in membrane bilayers by solid state NMR spectroscopy

The orientations of helical peptides in membrane bilayers provide important structural information that is directly relevant to their functional roles, both alone and within the context of larger membrane proteins. The orientations can be readily determined with solid state NMR experiments on samples of N-15-labeled peptides in lipid bilayers aligned between glass plates. The observed N-15 chemical shift frequencies can be directly interpreted to indicate whether the peptide's helix axis has a trans-membrane or an in-plane orientation. In order to distinguish between these possibilities on the basis of a single spectral parameter, e.g. the easily measured N-15 chemical shift frequency, it is necessary to demonstrate that the secondary structure of the peptide is helical, generally by solution NMR spectroscopy of the same peptide in micelle samples, and that it is immobile in bilayers, generally from solid state NMR spectra of unoriented samples. Six different 20-30 residue peptides are shown to have orientations that fall into the categories of trans-membrane or in-plane helices. A model hydrophobic peptide was found to be trans-membrane, several different amphipathic helical peptides were found to have either trans-membrane or in-plane orientations, and a leader or signal peptide, generally regarded as hydrophobic, was found to have a significant population with an in-plane orientation.