The monomer–dimer equilibrium of the glycophorin
A (GpA) transmembrane (TM) fragment has been used as a
model system to investigate the amino acid sequence requirements
that permit an appropriate helix–helix packing in
a membrane-mimetic environment. In particular, we have
focused on a region of the helix where no crucial residues
for packing have been yet reported. Various deletion and
replacement mutants in the C-terminal region of the TM
fragment showed that the distance between the dimerization
motif and the flanking charged residues from the cytoplasmic
side of the protein is important for helix packing. Furthermore,
selected GpA mutants have been used to illustrate the rearrangement
of TM fragments that takes place when leucine repeats are
introduced in such protein segments. We also show that
secondary structure of GpA derivatives was independent
from dimerization, in agreement with the two-stage model
for membrane protein folding and oligomerization.