Reversible assembly of gold nanoparticles controlled by the homodimerization and folding of an immobilized de novo designed synthetic polypeptide is described. In solution at neutral pH, the polypeptide folds into a helix-loop-helix four-helix bundle in the presence of zinc ions. When immobilized on gold nanoparticles, the addition of zinc ions induces dimerization and folding between peptide monomers located on separate particles, resulting in rapid particle aggregation. The particles can be completely redispersed by removal of the zinc ions from the peptide upon addition of EDTA. Calcium ions, which do not induce folding in solution, have no effect on the stability of the peptide decorated particles. The contribution from folding on particle assembly was further determined utilizing a reference peptide with the same primary sequence but containing both D and L amino acids. Particles functionalized with the reference peptide do not aggregate, as the peptides are unable to fold. The two peptides, linked to the nanoparticle surface via a cysteine residue located in the loop region, form submonolayers on planar gold with comparable properties regarding surface density, orientation, and ability to interact with zinc ions. These results demonstrate that nanoparticle assembly can be induced, controlled, and to some extent tuned, by exploiting specific molecular interactions involved in polypeptide folding.
Coiled coils with defined assembly properties and dissociation constants are highly attractive components in synthetic biology and for fabrication of peptide-based hybrid nanomaterials and nanostructures. Complex assemblies based on multiple different peptides typically require orthogonal peptides obtained by negative design. Negative design does not necessarily exclude formation of undesired species and may eventually compromise the stability of the desired coiled coils. This work describe a set of four promiscuous 28-residue de novo designed peptides that heterodimerize and fold into parallel coiled coils. The peptides are non-orthogonal and can form four different heterodimers albeit with large differences in affinities. The peptides display dissociation constants for dimerization spanning from the micromolar to the picomolar range. The significant differences in affinities for dimerization make the peptides prone to thermodynamic social self-sorting as shown by thermal unfolding and fluorescence experiments, and confirmed by simulations. The peptides self-sort with high fidelity to form the two coiled coils with the highest and lowest affinities for heterodimerization. The possibility to exploit self-sorting of mutually complementary peptides could hence be a viable approach to guide the assembly of higher order architectures and a powerful strategy for fabrication of dynamic and tuneable nanostructured materials.
This communication reports the first steps in the construction of a novel, nanoparticle-based hybrid material for biomimetic and biosensor applications. Gold nanoparticles were modified with synthetic polypeptides to enable control of the particle aggregation state in a switchable manner, and particle aggregation was, in turn, found to induce folding of the immobilized peptides.
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