• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.1985-1992
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• 2011

The stable conformers of glycine and the inter-conversions between them were studied theoretically at various levels of theory, B3LYP, MP2, CCSD and CCSD(T), in the gas phase and in aqueous solution. In aqueous solution, the structures examined by use of the conductor-like polarizable continuum model (CPCM) with various cavity models, UA0, UAHF, UAKS, UFF, BONDI and PAULING, and by use of a discrete/continuum solvation model with eight water clusters. The Gibbs free energy differences between the neutral (NE) and zwitterionic conformers (ZW), ${\Delta}G_{Z-N}[=G_{ZW}-G_{NE}]$, in aqueous solution were well reproduced by using the BONDI and PAULING cavity models. However the ${\Delta}G_{Z-N}$ values were underestimated in other cavity models, although the ZW conformers existed as stable species in aqueous solution. In the studies of a discrete/continuum solvation model with eight water clusters, gas phase results are still insufficient to reproduce the experimental findings. However the ${\Delta}G_{Z-N}$ values calculated by use of CPCM method in aqueous solution agreed well with the experimental ones.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.95-104
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• 2018

The structures and energies of the anhydrate and hydrate (hydrate rate: h of 1) states of L-alanine (LA) and glycine (G) were calculated by quantum chemical calculations (QCCs) using B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) for four types of conformers (${\beta}$-extended: ${\Phi}/{\Psi}=t-/t+$, $PP_{II}$: g-/t+, $PP_{II}$-like: g-/g+, and ${\alpha}$-helix: g-/g-). In LA and G, which have an imino proton (NH), three conformation types of ${\beta}$-extended, $PP_{II}$-like, and ${\alpha}$-helix were obtained, and water molecules were inserted mainly between the intra-molecular hydrogen bond of $CO{\cdots}HN$ in $PP_{II}$-like and ${\alpha}$-helix, and attached to the CO group in ${\beta}$-extended. In LA and G, $PP_{II}$-like conformers were most stable in the anhydrate and hydrate states, and the result for LA was different from some experimental and theoretical results from other studies reporting that the main stable conformation of alanine oligopeptide was $PP_{II}$. The formation pattern and stability of the conformation of the oligopeptide was strongly dominated by the presence/absence of intra-molecular hydrogen bonding of $CO{\cdots}HN$, or the presence/absence of an $NH_2$ group in the starting amino acid.