Nucleotide-promoted morphogenesis in amphiphile assemblies: kinetic control of micrometric helix formation

Anionic nucleotides adenosine monophosphate or guanosine monophosphate interact with cationic vesicles, exchange with the counteranions of the amphiphiles in situ, and organize themselves at the membrane surfaces. Such organized nucleotides reciprocally transfer their chirality to membranes of nonchiral amphiphiles to induce the formation of right-handed micrometric helices on the time scale of hours. The kinetics of the nucleotide molecular organization and the formation of supramolecular helices was followed. We have shown that helix formation is a kinetic-dependent process that does not primarily result from ion exchange but from conformational reorganization and formation of weak interactions between confined nucleotides.