Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
Department of Biochemistry, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Nat Commun. 2016 Oct 25;7:13190. doi: 10.1038/ncomms13190.
The dynamic nature of supramolecular polymers has a key role in their organization. Yet, the manipulation of their dimensions and polarity remains a challenge. Here, the minimalistic diphenylalanine building block was applied to demonstrate control of nano-assemblies growth and shrinkage using microfluidics. To fine-tune differential local environments, peptide nanotubes were confined by micron-scale pillars and subjected to monomer flows of various saturation levels to control assembly and disassembly. The small-volume device allows the rapid adjustment of conditions within the system. A simplified kinetic model was applied to calculate parameters of the growth mechanism. Direct real-time microscopy analysis revealed that different peptide derivatives show unidirectional or bidirectional axial dimension variation. Atomistic simulations show that unidirectional growth is dictated by the differences in the axial ends, as observed in the crystalline order of symmetry. This work lays foundations for the rational control of nano-materials dimensions for applications in biomedicine and material science.
超分子聚合物的动态特性在其组织中起着关键作用。然而，对其尺寸和极性的控制仍然是一个挑战。在这里，最小的二苯丙氨酸结构单元被应用于展示使用微流控技术对纳米组装体的生长和收缩的控制。为了微调微分局部环境，将肽纳米管限制在微米级的柱子内，并施加各种饱和度水平的单体流，以控制组装和拆卸。该小体积装置允许快速调整系统内的条件。应用简化的动力学模型来计算生长机制的参数。直接实时显微镜分析表明，不同的肽衍生物表现出单向或双向的轴向尺寸变化。原子模拟表明，单向生长是由轴向末端的差异决定的，如在对称的晶体秩序中观察到的那样。这项工作为合理控制纳米材料的尺寸以应用于生物医学和材料科学奠定了基础。
