A large number of studies have been carried out to obtain amino acid propensities for α-helices and β-sheets. The obtained propensities for α-helices are consistent with each other, and the pair-wise correlation coefficient is frequently high. On the other hand, the β-sheet propensities obtained by several studies differed significantly, indicating that the context significantly affects β-sheet propensity.

The assembly reaction of Escherichia coli ferritin A (EcFtnA) was studied using time-resolved small-angle X-ray scattering (TR-SAXS). EcFtnA forms a cagelike structure that consists of 24 identical subunits and dissociates into dimers at acidic pH. The dimer maintains nativelike secondary and tertiary structures and is able to reassemble into a 24-mer when the pH is increased. The reassembly reaction was induced by pH jump, and reassembly was followed by TR-SAXS. Time-dependent changes in the forward scattering intensity and in the gyration radius suggested the existence of a significant population of intermediate oligomers during the assembly reaction. The initial reaction was a mixture of second- and third-order reactions (formation of tetramers and hexamers) from the protein concentration dependence of the initial velocity. The time-dependent change in the SAXS profile was roughly explained by a simple model in which only tetramers, hexamers, and dodecamers were considered as intermediates.

Many β-strands are not flat but bend and/or twist. However, although almost all β-strands have a twist, not all have a bend, suggesting that the underlying force(s) driving β-strand bending is distinct from that for the twist. We, therefore, investigated the physical origin(s) of β-strand bends. We calculated rotation, twist and bend angles for a four-residue short frame. Fixed-length fragments consisting of six residues found in three consecutive short frames were used to evaluate the twist and bend angles of full-length β-strands. We calculated and statistically analyzed the twist and bend angles of β-strands found in globular proteins with known three-dimensional structures. The results show that full-length β-strand bend angles are related to the nearby aromatic residue content, whereas local bend angles are related to the nearby aliphatic residue content. Furthermore, it appears that β-strands bend to maximize their hydrophobic contacts with an abutting hydrophobic surface or to form a hydrophobic side-chain cluster when an abutting hydrophobic surface is absent. We conclude that the dominant driving force for full-length β-strand bends is the hydrophobic interaction involving aromatic residues, whereas that for local β-strand bends is the hydrophobic interaction involving aliphatic residues.