1l2y is a 1 chain structure. The October 2005 RCSB PDB Molecule of the Month feature on Designer Proteins by David S. Goodsell is 10.2210/rcsb_pdb/mom_2005_10. Full experimental information is available from OCA. For a guided tour on the structure components use FirstGlance.
Truncation and mutation of a poorly folded 39-residue peptide has produced 20-residue constructs that are >95% folded in water at physiological pH. These constructs optimize a novel fold, designated as the 'Trp-cage' motif, and are significantly more stable than any other miniprotein reported to date. Folding is cooperative and hydrophobically driven by the encapsulation of a Trp side chain in a sheath of Pro rings. As the smallest protein-like construct, Trp-cage miniproteins should provide a testing ground for both experimental studies and computational simulations of protein folding and unfolding pathways. Pro Trp interactions may be a particularly effective strategy for the a priori design of self-folding peptides.
