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Updated: Dec 18, 2025

Spatiotemporal Control of Protein Activity through Optogenetic Allosteric Regulation
Published on: October 4, 2024
Allosteric regulation of rotational, optical and catalytic properties within multicomponent machinery
Suchismita Saha1, Amit Ghosh1, Thomas Paululat2
1Center of Micro- and Nanochemistry and Engineering, Department Chemie - Biologie, Organische Chemie I, Adolf-Reichwein-Str. 2, D-57068 Siegen, Germany. schmittel@chemie.uni-siegen.de.
Abstract:
The reversible transformation of multicomponent nanorotors (ROT-1, k298 = 44 kHz or ROT-2, k298 = 61 kHz) to the "dimeric" supramolecular structures (DS-1 or DS-2, k298 = 0.60 kHz) was triggered by a stoichiometric chemical stimulus. Simple coordination changes at the central phenanthroline of the molecular device by altering metal ions (Cu+ → Zn2+) or stoichiometry (Cu+, 1 equiv. → 0.5 equiv.) affected the terminal zinc(ii) porphyrin units, the active sites within the machinery, changing rotational, catalytic and optical properties. In presence of added pyrrolidine, the nanorotor ROT-1 was inactive for catalysis whereas formation of the dimeric supramolecular structures DS-1 initiated a Michael addition reaction by releasing the organocatalyst from the porphyrin sites. This catalytic machinery (ROT-1 ⇄ DS-1) proved to reproducibly work over two full cycles using allosteric OFF/ON control of catalysis.
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