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Formation of Ordered Biomolecular Structures by the Self-assembly of Short Peptides
Published on: November 21, 2013
Structural studies of amphiphilic 4-helix bundle peptides incorporating designed extended chromophores for nonlinear
Joseph Strzalka1, Ting Xu, Andrey Tronin
1Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, 231 South 34th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
Abstract:
Extended conjugated chromophores containing (porphinato)zinc components that exhibit large optical polarizabilities and hyperpolarizabiliites are incorporated into amphiphilic 4-helix bundle peptides via specific axial histidyl ligation of the metal. The bundle's designed amphiphilicity enables vectorial orientation of the chromophore/peptide complex in macroscopic monolayer ensembles. The 4-helix bundle structure is maintained upon incorporation of two different chromophores at stoichiometries of 1-2 per bundle. The axial ligation site appears to effectively control the position of the chromophore along the length of the bundle.

