Abstract
Blout and Karlson1 have reported that the constant b 0 in Moffitt's equation for the dispersion of optical rotation2 has values up to + 630° for solutions of poly-β-benzyl-L-aspartate in chloroform ; the usual value for solutions containing α-helices of polypeptides is about − 600°, and corresponds to right-handed helices3. We have studied the dispersion of a number of copolymers of β-benzyl-L-aspartate with other amino-acids, and believe that the results demonstrate that the positive b 0 found for poly-β-benzyl-L-aspartate is due to a left-handed helix and not to an optical anomaly
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References
Blout, E. R., and Karlson, R. H., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 80, 1259 (1958); corrected value of b0 given in same ref., p. 6701.
Moffitt, W., J. Chem. Phys., 25, 467 (1956); Proc. U.S. Nat. Acad. Sci., 42, 736 (1956).
For example, Moffitt, W., and Yang, J. T., Proc. U.S. Nat. Acad. Sci., 42, 596 (1956).
Bamford, C. H., Ballard, D. G. H., and Elliott, A., Symp. on Macromolecules, Wiesbaden (1959); Makromol. Chem., 35 (2), 222 (1960).
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BRADBURY, E., DOWNIE, A., ELLIOTT, A. et al. Screw Sense of the α-Helix in Poly-β-benzyl-L-aspartate. Nature 187, 321 (1960). https://doi.org/10.1038/187321a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/187321a0
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