CONFORMATION OF RETRO-BOMBOLITIN-I IN AQUEOUS-SOLUTION CONTAINING SURFACTANT MICELLES

Bombolitins are five naturally occurring heptadecapeptides acting at t he membrane level and able to increase the activity of phospholipase A (2). As for other peptides with similar function, the biological activ ity of bombolitins seems to be mainly due to their ability to form amp hipathic helical structures. We synthesized and tested the retro seque nce of bombolitin I (retro-bombolitin I). This peptide showed an activ ity similar to that of the natural sequence and was able to adopt a he lical structure in the presence of an amphipathic environment consisti ng of SDS micelles. The secondary structure of this peptide was fully characterized by CD and nmr spectroscopy. (C) 1994 John Wiley and Sons , Inc.