The Strength with Which a Peptide Group Can Form a Hydrogen Bond Varies with the Internal Conformation of the Polypeptide Chain

The strength of the H-bond formed between a dipeptide and a proton acceptor molecule is assessed by correlated ab initio quantum calculations for a broad range of different conformations of the dipeptide. The H-bond energy is very sensitive to the internal (φ,ψ) angles, even when the geometry of the H-bond does not vary significantly from one conformation to another. This result indicates that the peptide NH is a much less potent proton donor in certain conformations than in others. In particular, extended conformations of a polypeptide are capable of only weak H-bonds. Thus, the interstrand NH···O H-bonds in parallel and antiparallel β-sheets are expected to be significantly weaker than those found in other conformations, such as helices, ribbons, and β-bends, even if the H-bond geometries are similar