An Arg-rich putative prebiotic protein is as stable as its Lys-rich variant

An Arg-rich peptide called RIA7; sequence ac-ARAAAAAIRAIAAIIRAGGY-am, tetramerizes to form a well folded, four helix X-bundle protein. The Arg side chains are solvent exposed and the hydrophobic core is composed of the side chains from some Alas, all the Iles and the C-terminal Tyr. Since Gly, Ala and Ile, and in lesser amounts Arg and Tyr have been reported to form under putative prebiotic Earth conditions, it is plausible that RIA7-like peptides might have formed on the primitive Earth and interacted with RNAs. The interaction of RIA7 with two RNAs was tested and the formation of insoluble aggregates was observed. These results contrast with previous studies of a Lys-rich variant, called KIA7, which promotes the cleavage of RNAs. Their close structural similarity makes RIA7 and KIA7 an excellent system to compare the relative contributions of Arg and Lys to protein conformational stability. NMR-monitored hydrogen/deuterium exchange measurements and CD-monitored thermal denaturation experiments performed at different peptide and salt concentrations reveal that the conformational stabilities of RIA7 and KIA7 are practically the same. This finding has relevance for protein engineering as Lys is frequently replaced by Arg to improve ligand binding and membrane association and penetration.