International Journal of Molecular Sciences Article Insights Into the Micelle-Induced β-Hairpin-to-α-Helix Transition of a LytA-Derived Peptide by Photo-CIDNP Spectroscopy M. Victoria Gomez 1,* , Margarita Ruiz-Castañeda 1, Philipp Nitschke 2,†, Ruth M. Gschwind 2 and M. Angeles Jiménez 3,* 1 IRICA, Department of Inorganic, Organic and Biochemistry, Faculty of Chemical Sciences and Technologies, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Av. Camilo José Cela 10, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain;
[email protected] 2 Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany;
[email protected] (P.N.);
[email protected] (R.M.G.) 3 Departamento de Química-Física Biológica, Instituto de Química Física Rocasolano (IQFR-CSIC), Serrano 119, 28006 Madrid, Spain * Correspondence:
[email protected] (M.V.G.);
[email protected] (M.A.J.) † Current address: Australian National Phenome Centre, Health Futures Institute, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, Australia. Abstract: A choline-binding module from pneumococcal LytA autolysin, LytA239–252, was reported to have a highly stable nativelike β-hairpin in aqueous solution, which turns into a stable amphipathic α-helix in the presence of micelles. Here, we aim to obtain insights into this DPC-micelle triggered Citation: Gomez, M.V.; β-hairpin-to-α-helix conformational transition using photo-CIDNP NMR experiments. Our results Ruiz-Castañeda, M.; Nitschke, P.; illustrate the dependency between photo-CIDNP phenomena and the light intensity in the sample Gschwind, R.M.; Jiménez, M.A. volume, showing that the use of smaller-diameter (2.5 mm) NMR tubes instead of the conventional Insights Into the Micelle-Induced 5 mm ones enables more efficient illumination for our laser-diode light setup.