Self-folding of supramolecular polymers into bioinspired topology

Sci Adv. 2018 Sep 7;4(9):eaat8466. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aat8466. eCollection 2018 Sep.

Abstract

Folding one-dimensional polymer chains into well-defined topologies represents an important organization process for proteins, but replicating this process for supramolecular polymers remains a challenging task. We report supramolecular polymers that can fold into protein-like topologies. Our approach is based on curvature-forming supramolecular rosettes, which affords kinetic control over the extent of helical folding in the resulting supramolecular fibers by changing the cooling rate for polymerization. When using a slow cooling rate, we obtained misfolded fibers containing a minor amount of helical domains that folded on a time scale of days into unique topologies reminiscent of the protein tertiary structures. Thermodynamic analysis of fibers with varying degrees of folding revealed that the folding is accompanied by a large enthalpic gain. The self-folding proceeds via ordering of misfolded domains in the main chain using helical domains as templates, as fully misfolded fibers prepared by a fast cooling rate do not self-fold.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Barbiturates / chemistry
  • Cyclohexanes / chemistry
  • Dynamic Light Scattering
  • Kinetics
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
  • Microscopy, Atomic Force
  • Polymerization
  • Polymers / chemistry*
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary
  • Scattering, Small Angle
  • Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet
  • Thermodynamics
  • X-Ray Diffraction

Substances

  • Barbiturates
  • Cyclohexanes
  • Polymers
  • methylcyclohexane
  • barbituric acid