Exploiting terminal charged residue shift for wide bilayer nanotube assembly

Self-assembly of peptides is influenced by both molecular structure and external conditions, which dictate the delicate balance of different non-covalent interactions that driving the self-assembling process. The shifting of terminal charge residue is expected to influence the non-covalent interactions and their interplay, thereby affecting the morphologies of self-assemblies. Therefore, the morphology transition can be realized by shifting the position of the terminal charge residue.

The structure transition from thin nanofibers to giant nanotubes is realized by simply shifting the C-terminal lysine of ultrashort Ac-I₃K-NH₂ to its N-terminus. The morphologies and detailed structure information of the self-assemblies formed by these two peptides are investigated systemically by a combination of different experimental techniques. The effect of terminal residue on the morphologies of the self-assemblies is well presented and the underlying mechanism is revealed.

Giant nanotubes with a bilayer shell structure can be self-assembled by the ultrashort peptide Ac-KI₃-NH₂ with the lysine residue close to the N-terminal. The Ac-KI₃-NH₂ dimerization through intermolecular C-terminal H-bonding promotes the formation of a bola-form geometry, which is responsible for the wide nanotube assembly formation. The evolution process of Ac-KI₃-NH₂ nanotubes follows the "growing width" model. Such a morphological transformation with the terminal lysine shift is applicable to other analogues and thus provides a facile approach for the self-assembly of wide peptide nanotubes, which can expand the library of good template structures for the prediction of peptide nanostructures.