Via
the design of a new, soluble poly(S-alkyl-l-cysteine) precursor, a route was developed for the successful
preparation of long-chain poly(dehydroalanine), A
DH
, as well as the incorporation of dehydroalanine
residues and A
DH
segments into
copolypeptides. Based on experimental and computational data, A
DH
was found to adopt a previously
unobserved “hybrid coil” structure, which combines the
elements of 25-helical and 310-helical conformations.
Analysis of the spectroscopic properties of A
DH
revealed that it possesses a strong inherent blue
fluorescence, which may be amenable for use in imaging applications. A
DH
also contains reactive electrophilic
groups that allowed its efficient modification to functionalized polypeptides
after reactions under mild conditions with thiol and amine nucleophiles.
The combined structural, spectroscopic, and reactivity properties
of A
DH
make it a unique reactive
and fluorescent polypeptide component for utilization in self-assembled
biomaterials.
We report the preparation of a new water-soluble, nonionic homopolypeptide poly(L-homoserine) as well as poly(Lhomoserine) block copolymers with controllable segment lengths. The conformational preferences of poly(L-homoserine) were also determined in both the solid state and in solution. Poly(Lhomoserine) is soluble in water and adopts a disordered conformation that makes it a promising addition to the small class of nonionic, water-soluble homopolypeptides with potential for development for applications in biology. Toward this goal, a poly(L-homoserine) containing a block copolypeptide was prepared and found to assemble into micro-and nanoscale vesicles in water.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.