| Abstract
| - Isolating spacers introduced between solubilizing lysine regions and a polyalanine core permitrigorous characterization of context-free alanine helices. The preferred building blocks for isolating spacersare amino acids with rigid, extended conformations such as proline, isonipecotic acid, and tert-leucine.Replacing isolating spacers by conventional N- and C-caps dramatically increases the helicity ofdodecaalanine. Solubilized, isolated polyalanines provide optimal tools for testing polypeptide helicityalgorithms, central to resolution of the protein folding problem.
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