Chotera Agata, Sadihov Hava, Cohen-Luria Rivka, Monnard Pierre-Alain, Ashkenasy Gonen
Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, 84105, Israel.
Institute for Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark, 5230, Odense M, Denmark.
Chemistry. 2018 Jul 17;24(40):10128-10135. doi: 10.1002/chem.201800500. Epub 2018 Jun 14.
Striking synergy between nucleic acids and proteins is exhibited in living cells. Whether such mutual activity can be performed using simple supramolecular nucleic acid-peptide (NA-pep) architectures remains a mystery. To shed light on this question, we studied the emergence of a primitive synergy in assemblies of short DNA-peptide chimeras. Specifically, we characterized multiple structures forming along gradual mixing trajectory, in which a peptide solution was seeded with increasing amounts of NA-pep chimeras. We report on the systematic change from β-sheet-peptide-based fibrillar architectures into the spherical structures formed by the conjugates. Remarkably, we find that through forming onion-like structures, the conjugates exhibit increased DNA hybridization stability and bind small molecules more efficiently than the peptides or DNA alone. A brief discussion highlights the implications of our findings for the production of new materials and for research on the origin of life.
核酸与蛋白质之间显著的协同作用在活细胞中得以展现。而利用简单的超分子核酸 - 肽（NA - pep）结构是否能够实现这种相互作用仍是个谜。为了阐明这个问题，我们研究了短DNA - 肽嵌合体组装体中原始协同作用的出现。具体而言，我们对沿着逐渐混合轨迹形成的多种结构进行了表征，在该轨迹中，向肽溶液中逐量加入NA - pep嵌合体。我们报告了从基于β - 折叠肽的纤维状结构到由共轭物形成的球形结构的系统变化。值得注意的是,我们发现通过形成洋葱状结构，共轭物展现出更高的DNA杂交稳定性，并且比单独的肽或DNA更有效地结合小分子。简短的讨论突出了我们的发现对新型材料生产和生命起源研究的意义。
