Peptides and proteins offer
interesting starting points for triggering self-assembly process owing to the
chemical diversity of side-chains, ease of chemical modifications and the
possibility of exploiting a host of non-covalent and metal-assisted interactions,
to stabilize higher order ensembles. Consequently, a variety of nanoscale
morphologies such as fibers, vesicles, nanotubes are observed for amino acids
and short peptides and these biocompatible soft materials have been used for
diverse biological, medical and material applications. We report metal-mediated
modification of spherical soft assemblies, through co-ordination route,
resulting in coalescence of structures. Various microscopic analysis (SEM, TEM
and AFM) and DLS data prove involvement of metal ions and it is proposed that
this metal-peptide conjugate binding may find novel material and catalytic applications.
- Gagandeep Kaur, Lihi A. Abramovich, Ehud Gazit*, Sandeep Verma*, "Ultrastructure of metallopeptide- based soft spherical morphologies" RSC Adv., 2014, 4, 64457