The Influence of the Amino Acid Side Chains on the Raman Optical Activity Spectra of Proteins

Abstract The Raman optical activity (ROA) spectra of proteins show distinct patterns arising from the secondary structure. It is generally believed that the spectral contributions of the side‐chains largely cancel out because of their flexibility and the occurrence of many side‐chains with different conformations. Yet, the influence of the side‐chains on the ROA patterns assigned to different secondary structures is unknown. Here, the first systematic study of the influence of all amino acid side‐chains on the ROA patterns is presented based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations of an extensive collection of peptide models that include many different side‐chain and secondary structure conformations. It was shown that the contributions of the side‐chains to a large extent average out with conformational flexibility. However, specific side‐chain conformations can have significant contributions to the ROA patterns. It was also shown that α‐helical structure is very sensitive to both the exact backbone conformation and the side‐chain conformation. Side‐chains with χ 1 ≈−60° generate ROA patterns alike those in experiment. Aromatic side‐chains strongly influence the amide III ROA patterns. Because of the huge structural sensitivity of ROA, the spectral patterns of proteins arise from extensive conformational averaging of both the backbone and the side‐chains. The averaging results in the fine spectral details and relative intensity differences observed in experimental spectra.