Controlling 1D Nanostructures and Handedness by Polar Residue Chirality of Amphiphilic Peptides

H Xu and K Qi and C Zong and J Deng and P Zhou and XZ Hu and XY Ma and D Wang and MH Wang and J Zhang and SM King and SE Rogers and JR Lu and J Yang and JQ Wang, SMALL (2023).

DOI: 10.1002/smll.202304424

Peptide assemblies are promising nanomaterials, with their properties and technological applications being highly hinged on their supramolecular architectures. Here, how changing the chirality of the terminal charged residues of an amphiphilic hexapeptide sequence Ac-I4K2-NH2 gives rise to distinct nanostructures and supramolecular handedness is reported. Microscopic imaging and neutron scattering measurements show thin nanofibrils, thick nanofibrils, and wide nanotubes self-assembled from four stereoisomers. Spectroscopic and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analyses reveal that these isomeric peptides adopt similar anti-parallel & beta;-sheet secondary structures. Further theoretical calculations demonstrate that the chiral alterations of the two C-terminal lysine residues cause the formation of diverse single & beta;-strand conformations, and the final self- assembled nanostructures and handedness are determined by the twisting direction and degree of single & beta;-strands. This work not only lays a useful foundation for the fabrication of diverse peptide nanostructures by manipulating the chirality of specific residues but also provides a framework for predicting the supramolecular structures and handedness of peptide assemblies from single molecule conformations. Changing the chirality of the terminal charged residues of an amphiphilic hexapeptide AcI4K2-NH2 gives rise to distinct nanostructures and supramolecular handedness. The chiral alterations of the two C-terminal lysine residues cause the formation of diverse single & beta;-strand conformations, and the final self-assembled nanostructures and handedness are determined by the twisting direction and degree of single & beta;-strands.image

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