Polyproline Helix

A Polyproline Helix is a type of protein secondary structure, which occurs in proteins comprising repeating proline residues. A left-handed polyproline II helix (PPII, poly-Pro II) is formed when sequential residues all adopt (φ,ψ) backbone dihedral angles of roughly (-75°, 150°) and have trans isomers of their peptide bonds. Similarly, a more compact right-handed polyproline I helix (PPI, poly-Pro I) is formed when sequential residues all adopt (φ,ψ) backbone dihedral angles of roughly (-75°, 160°) and have cis isomers of their peptide bonds. Of the twenty common naturally occurring amino acids, only proline is likely to adopt the cis isomer of the peptide bond, specifically the X-Pro peptide bond; steric and electronic factors heavily favor the trans isomer in most other peptide bonds. However, peptide bonds that replace proline with another N-substituted amino acid (such as sarcosine) are also likely to adopt the cis isomer.