Dedicated to Professor Teruaki Mukaiyuma, a dear friend and revered colleague on the occasion of his 70th birthday(1 3. VIII. 96)Structural prerequisites for the stability of the 3, helix of p-peptides can be defined from inspection of models (Figs. 1 and 2 ) : lateral non-Hi-substituents in 2-and 3-position on the 3-amino-acid residues of the helix are allowed, axial ones are forbidden. To be able to test this prediction, we synthesized a series of hepta- (1) and of the p-heptapeptide H-P-HVal-P-HAla-p-HLeu-(S,S)-~-HAla(a Me)-p-HVal-p-HAla-p-HLeu-OH (22), with a central (2S,3S)-3-amino-2-methylbutanoic-acid residue, confirm the helical structure of such 8-peptides (previously discovered in pyridine solution) (Fig. 3 and Tables 1-5). The CD spectra of helicalp-peptides, the residues of which were prepared by (retentive) Arndt-Eistert homologation of the (S)-or ~-a-amino acids, show a trough at 215 nm. Thus, this characteristic pattern of the CD spectra was taken as an indicator for the presence of a helix in methanol solutions of compounds 1 S 2 2 and 25 (including partially and fully deprotected forms) (Figs. 4 4 ) . The results fully confirm predicted structural effects: incorporation of a single 'wrong' residue ((R)-P-HAla, p-HAib, (R,S)-B-HAla(aMe), or N-Me-P-HAla) in the central positioh of thep-heptapeptide derivatives A (see 17, 18,20, or 21, resp.) causes the CD minimum to disappear. Also, the P-heptadepsipetide 25 (missing H-bond) and the /I-heptapeptide analogs with a single a-amino-acid moiety in the middle (13 and 14) are not helical, according to this analysis. An interesting case is the heptapeptide 15 with the central achiral, unsubstituted 3-aminopropanoicacid moiety: helical conformation appears to depend upon the presence or absence of terminal protection and upon the solvent (MeOH vs. MeOH/H20).