Directing an oligopeptide amphiphile into an aligned nanofiber matrix for elucidating molecular structures

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (11) ◽  
pp. 1659-1662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Si-Yong Qin ◽  
Wen-Qiang Ding ◽  
Zhi-Wei Jiang ◽  
Xinxiang Lei ◽  
Ai-Qing Zhang

An aligned nanofiber matrix is obtained from the self-assembly of an oligopeptide amphiphile, which can capture the residual dipolar couplings of biomolecules.

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (02) ◽  
pp. 1530002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. T. Michaels ◽  
Tuomas P. J. Knowles

Filamentous protein structures are of high relevance for the normal functioning of the cell, where they provide the structural component for the cytoskeleton, but are also implicated in the pathogenesis of many disease states. The self-assembly of these supra-molecular structures from monomeric proteins has been studied extensively in the past 50 years and much interest has focused on elucidating the microscopic events that drive linear growth phenomena in a biological setting. Master equations have proven to be particularly fruitful in this context, allowing specific assembly mechanisms to be linked directly to experimental observations of filamentous growth. Recently, these approaches have increasingly been applied to aberrant protein polymerization, elucidating potential implications for controlling or combating the formation of pathological filamentous structures. This article reviews recent theoretical advances in the field of filamentous growth phenomena through the use of the master-equation formalism. We use perturbation and self-consistent methods for obtaining analytical solutions to the rate equations describing fibrillar growth and show how the resulting closed-form expressions can be used to shed light on the general physical laws underlying this complex phenomenon. We also present a connection between the underlying ideas of the self-consistent analysis of filamentous growth and the perturbative renormalization group.


2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (30) ◽  
pp. 20281-20289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastien Calmettes ◽  
Nicolas Estrampes ◽  
Christophe Coudret ◽  
Thomas J. Roussel ◽  
Jordi Faraudo ◽  
...  

A STM image of the hexagonal network of tri-adamantyl benzene molecules on Ag(111).


2000 ◽  
Vol 07 (05n06) ◽  
pp. 661-666 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATTHIAS BÖHRINGER ◽  
WOLF-DIETER SCHNEIDER ◽  
RICHARD BERNDT

We briefly review recent low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) investigations performed in our laboratory1–5 on the self-assembly of the dipolar organic molecule 1-nitronaphthalene (NN) adsorbed on the reconstructed Au(111) surface. NN becomes chiral upon planar adsorption on the gold surface. We observe several coverage-driven structural transformations which are associated with simultaneous changes in the enantiomeric composition of the self-assembled molecular structures. At low coverages almost exclusively decamers with an 8:2 ratio of the enantiomers are formed. In a medium coverage range enantiopure one-dimensional molecular double chains prevail on the surface. Subsequently, molecules with opposite handedness are admixed until at monolayer coverage racemic one- and two-dimensional structures coexist. Modeling shows that hydrogen bonding causes the observed self-assembly. A subtle interplay between the electrostatic interactions among the molecules and their interaction with the reconstructed metal surface is the origin of the observed coverage-driven chiral phase transition in two dimensions.


RSC Advances ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (71) ◽  
pp. 66431-66437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hai-Kuan Yang

The supramolecular structures formed by polyoxometalate–steroid conjugates can be greatly influenced by molecular structures and solution components.


Author(s):  
M. Kessel ◽  
R. MacColl

The major protein of the blue-green algae is the biliprotein, C-phycocyanin (Amax = 620 nm), which is presumed to exist in the cell in the form of distinct aggregates called phycobilisomes. The self-assembly of C-phycocyanin from monomer to hexamer has been extensively studied, but the proposed next step in the assembly of a phycobilisome, the formation of 19s subunits, is completely unknown. We have used electron microscopy and analytical ultracentrifugation in combination with a method for rapid and gentle extraction of phycocyanin to study its subunit structure and assembly.To establish the existence of phycobilisomes, cells of P. boryanum in the log phase of growth, growing at a light intensity of 200 foot candles, were fixed in 2% glutaraldehyde in 0.1M cacodylate buffer, pH 7.0, for 3 hours at 4°C. The cells were post-fixed in 1% OsO4 in the same buffer overnight. Material was stained for 1 hour in uranyl acetate (1%), dehydrated and embedded in araldite and examined in thin sections.


Author(s):  
Xiaorong Zhu ◽  
Richard McVeigh ◽  
Bijan K. Ghosh

A mutant of Bacillus licheniformis 749/C, NM 105 exhibits some notable properties, e.g., arrest of alkaline phosphatase secretion and overexpression and hypersecretion of RS protein. Although RS is known to be widely distributed in many microbes, it is rarely found, with a few exceptions, in laboratory cultures of microorganisms. RS protein is a structural protein and has the unusual properties to form aggregate. This characteristic may have been responsible for the self assembly of RS into regular tetragonal structures. Another uncommon characteristic of RS is that enhanced synthesis and secretion which occurs when the cells cease to grow. Assembled RS protein with a tetragonal structure is not seen inside cells at any stage of cell growth including cells in the stationary phase of growth. Gel electrophoresis of the culture supernatant shows a very large amount of RS protein in the stationary culture of the B. licheniformis. It seems, Therefore, that the RS protein is cotranslationally secreted and self assembled on the envelope surface.


MRS Advances ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (64) ◽  
pp. 3507-3520
Author(s):  
Chunhui Dai ◽  
Kriti Agarwal ◽  
Jeong-Hyun Cho

AbstractNanoscale self-assembly, as a technique to transform two-dimensional (2D) planar patterns into three-dimensional (3D) nanoscale architectures, has achieved tremendous success in the past decade. However, an assembly process at nanoscale is easily affected by small unavoidable variations in sample conditions and reaction environment, resulting in a low yield. Recently, in-situ monitored self-assembly based on ion and electron irradiation has stood out as a promising candidate to overcome this limitation. The usage of ion and electron beam allows stress generation and real-time observation simultaneously, which significantly enhances the controllability of self-assembly. This enables the realization of various complex 3D nanostructures with a high yield. The additional dimension of the self-assembled 3D nanostructures opens the possibility to explore novel properties that cannot be demonstrated in 2D planar patterns. Here, we present a rapid review on the recent achievements and challenges in nanoscale self-assembly using electron and ion beam techniques, followed by a discussion of the novel optical properties achieved in the self-assembled 3D nanostructures.


2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hueyling Tan

Molecular self-assembly is ubiquitous in nature and has emerged as a new approach to produce new materials in chemistry, engineering, nanotechnology, polymer science and materials. Molecular self-assembly has been attracting increasing interest from the scientific community in recent years due to its importance in understanding biology and a variety of diseases at the molecular level. In the last few years, considerable advances have been made in the use ofpeptides as building blocks to produce biological materials for wide range of applications, including fabricating novel supra-molecular structures and scaffolding for tissue repair. The study ofbiological self-assembly systems represents a significant advancement in molecular engineering and is a rapidly growing scientific and engineering field that crosses the boundaries ofexisting disciplines. Many self-assembling systems are rangefrom bi- andtri-block copolymers to DNA structures as well as simple and complex proteins andpeptides. The ultimate goal is to harness molecular self-assembly such that design andcontrol ofbottom-up processes is achieved thereby enabling exploitation of structures developed at the meso- and macro-scopic scale for the purposes oflife and non-life science applications. Such aspirations can be achievedthrough understanding thefundamental principles behind the selforganisation and self-synthesis processes exhibited by biological systems.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Contini ◽  
Russell Pearson ◽  
Linge Wang ◽  
Lea Messager ◽  
Jens Gaitzsch ◽  
...  

<div><div><div><p>We report the design of polymersomes using a bottom-up approach where the self-assembly of amphiphilic copolymers poly(2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl phosphorylcholine)–poly(2-(diisopropylamino) ethyl methacrylate) (PMPC-PDPA) into membranes is tuned using pH and temperature. We study this process in detail using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and stop-flow ab- sorbance disclosing the molecular and supramolecular anatomy of each structure observed. We report a clear evolution from disk micelles to vesicle to high-genus vesicles where each passage is controlled by pH switch or temperature. We show that the process can be rationalised adapting membrane physics theories disclosing important scaling principles that allow the estimation of the vesiculation minimal radius as well as chain entanglement and coupling. This allows us to propose a new approach to generate nanoscale vesicles with genus from 0 to 70 which have been very elusive and difficult to control so far.</p></div></div></div>


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