Alpha,Beta-Unsaturated Gamma-Peptide Foldamers

Despite their concomitant emergence in the 1990s, gamma-peptide foldamers have not developed as fast as beta-peptide foldamers and to date, only a few gamma-oligomer structures have been reported, and with sparse applications. Among these examples, sequences containing alpha,beta-unsaturated gamma-amino acids have recently drawn attention since the Z/E configurations of the double bond provide opposite planar restrictions leading to divergent conformational behaviors, from helix to extended structures. In this Review, we give a comprehensive overview of the developments of gamma-peptide foldamers containing alpha,beta-unsaturated gamma-amino acids with examples of applications for health and catalysis, as well as materials science.