Department of Chemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, United States.
Biomacromolecules. 2011 Sep 12;12(9):3119-23. doi: 10.1021/bm200820x. Epub 2011 Aug 24.
We describe an abiotic hydrogel that mimics selectivity of the nuclear pore complex. Copolymerization of peptide tetramers (phenylalanine-serine-phenylalanine-glycine, FSFG) with acrylamide results in hydrophobic interactions significant enough to allow the formation of freestanding hydrogel structures. Incorporation of FSFG motifs also renders the hydrogels selective. Selective binding of importins and nuclear transport receptor-cargo complexes is qualitatively demonstrated and compared with polyacrylamide, hydrogels prepared from a control peptide, and hydrogels prepared from the nuclear pore complex protein Nsp1. These abiotic hydrogels will enable further studies of the unique transport mechanisms of the nuclear pore complex and provide an interesting paradigm for the future development of synthetic platforms for separations and selective interfaces.
我们描述了一种模拟核孔复合体选择性的非生物水凝胶。四肽（苯丙氨酸-丝氨酸-苯丙氨酸-甘氨酸，FSFG）与丙烯酰胺共聚，形成足够强的疏水相互作用，允许形成独立的水凝胶结构。FSFG 基序的掺入也使水凝胶具有选择性。进口蛋白和核转运受体-货物复合物的选择性结合被定性地证明，并与聚丙烯酰胺、由对照肽制备的水凝胶和由核孔复合体蛋白 Nsp1 制备的水凝胶进行了比较。这些非生物水凝胶将使核孔复合体独特的运输机制的进一步研究成为可能，并为未来用于分离和选择性界面的合成平台的发展提供了一个有趣的范例。
