Tubulin E-Hook Hexamers Reveal Sequence-Dependent Compaction and Transient Secondary Structure Signatures

Abstract

The present work shows that E-hook fragments possess functional structural differences governed by electrostatic interactions and sequence composition. The acidic C-terminal tails of tubulin, known as E-hooks, play a central role in regulating interactions between microtubules and motor proteins, microtubule-associated proteins, and enzymatic modifiers. Despite their functional importance, the intrinsic structural properties of these peptide segments remain poorly characterized due to their intrinsically disordered nature. In this work, we present quantum-mechanically optimized structures of hexamer peptides derived from β-tubulin E-hook sequences. Density functional theory calculations were used to optimize peptide geometries using progressively larger basis sets. From the optimized geometries, we calculated theoretical Raman spectra, Ramachandran backbone dihedral distributions, and measured radii of gyration to resolve composition-dependent structural tendencies. The combined Raman and conformational analyses provide a systematic computational approach for comparing simulated and experimental Raman spectra of tubulin E-hooks and other intrinsically disordered proteins and offer insight into how E-hooks contribute to the recognition mechanisms underlying the tubulin code.