Conformational Studies on Copolypeptides Composed of r-Benzyl-L-Glutamate and r-Methyl-L-Glutamate

Polymer characterization a d helix-coiltransition of copolypeptides composed of r-benzyl-L-glutamate and 7-methyl-L-glutamate were investigated by viscometric, osmometric, and spectro-polarimetric measurements. The characteristic ratio of the equimolar copolypeptide in random coil conformation was estimated and the data concerning the helix-coil transition were analyzed according to an approximate expression for the helical contentproposed for homopolypeptides. It was shown that the helical content was almost proportional tothe reciprocal of the degree of poly-merization. The results were compared with ones from Allegra's approximate heory on the helix— coil transition of copolypeptides