Conformation of amino acid residue contiguous to helical polypeptide

Abstract The calculation of the conformational energy of the terminal D‐ or L‐alanine residue contiguous to an α‐helical polypeptide, polyalanine, was made. Both L‐and D‐residues contiguous to the carboxyl terminal of α‐helical poly(L‐alanine) are considered to prefer the α‐helical conformation due to the effect of the α‐helical structure of the polymer. The residue at the amino terminal is found to be less affected by the α‐helical structure of the polymer.