Controlling the Structure of Proteins at Surfaces

The role of flow in the self-assembly of dragline spider silk proteins

Hydrodynamic flow in the spider duct induces conformational changes in dragline spider silk proteins (spidroins) and drives their assembly, but the underlying physical mechanisms are still elusive. Here we address this challenging multiscale problem with a complementary strategy of atomistic and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations with uniform flow. The conformational changes at the molecular level were analyzed for single-tethered spider silk peptides. Uniform flow leads to coiled-to-stretch transitions and pushes alanine residues into β sheet and poly-proline II conformations. Coarse-grained simulations of the assembly process of multiple semi-flexible block copolymers using multi-particle collision dynamics reveal that the spidroins aggregate faster but into low-order assemblies when they are less extended. At medium-to-large peptide extensions (50%-80%), assembly slows down and becomes reversible with frequent association and dissociation events, whereas spidroin alignment increases and alanine repeats form ordered regions. Our work highlights the role of flow in guiding silk self-assembly into tough fibers by enhancing alignment and kinetic reversibility, a mechanism likely relevant also for other proteins whose function depends on hydrodynamic flow.

Multivalent non-covalent interactions lead to strongest polymer adhesion

Multivalent interactions play a leading role in biological processes such as the inhibition of inflammation or virus internalization. The multivalent interactions show enhanced strength and better selectivity compared to monovalent interactions, but they are much less understood due to their complexity. Here, we detect molecular interactions in the range of a few piconewtons to several nanonewtons and correlate them with the formation and subsequent breaking of one or several bonds and assign these bonds. This becomes possible by performing atomic force microcopy (AFM)-based single molecule force spectroscopy of a multifunctional polymer covalently attached to an AFM cantilever tip on a substrate bound polymer layer of the multifunctional polymer. Varying the pH value and the crosslinking state of the polymer layer, we find that bonds of intermediate strength (non-covalent), like coordination bonds, give the highest multivalent bond strength, even outperforming strong (covalent) bonds. At the same time, covalent bonds enhance the polymer layer density, increasing in particular the number of non-covalent bonds. In summary, we can show that the key for the design of stable and durable polymer coatings is to provide a variety of multivalent interactions and to keep the number of non-covalent interactions at a high level.

Assessing the Accuracy of Different Solvation Models To Describe Protein Adsorption

In protein adsorption, the surrounding solvent has an important role in mediating protein-surface interactions. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that the solvent methods employed to model these kinds of processes are able to correctly capture the complex mechanisms occurring in the protein-water-surface interface. Here, we test the suitability of the two most popular implicit solvent methods based on the Generalized Born formalism to describe the adsorption process of the immunoglobulin G (IgG) on a hydrophobic graphene surface. Our results show that in both cases, IgG experiences an extreme and early (in less than 40 ns) unfolding as a result of the adsorption to the surface in contrast with previous experimental findings. A detailed energy decomposition analysis of explicit and implicit solvent simulations reveals that this discrepancy arises from the ill-characterization of two energy components in implicit solvent methods. These findings help to elucidate how implicit solvent models may be improved to accurately characterize the protein adsorption process.

Recent advances in nanoscale bioinspired materials

Natural materials have been a fundamental part of human life since the dawn of civilization. However, due to exploitation of natural resources and cost issues, synthetic materials replaced bio-derived materials in the last century. Recent advances in bio- and nano-technologies pave the way for developing eco-friendly materials that could be produced easily from renewable resources at reduced cost and in a broad array of useful applications. This feature article highlights structural and functional characteristics of bio-derived materials, which will expedite the design fabrication and synthesis of eco-friendly and recyclable advanced nano-materials and devices.

Direct observation of amyloid nucleation under nanomechanical stretching

Self-assembly of amyloid nanofiber is associated with both functional biological and pathological processes such as those in neurodegenerative diseases. Despite intensive studies, the stochastic nature of the process has made it difficult to elucidate a molecular mechanism for the key amyloid nucleation event. Here we investigated nucleation of the silk-elastin-like peptide (SELP) amyloid using time-lapse lateral force microscopy (LFM). By repeated scanning of a single line on a SELP-coated mica surface, we observed a sudden stepwise height increase. This corresponds to nucleation of an amyloid fiber, which subsequently grew perpendicular to the scanning direction. The lateral force profiles followed either a worm-like chain model or an exponential function, suggesting that the atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip stretches a single or multiple SELP molecules along the scanning direction. The probability of nucleation correlated with the maximum stretching force and extension, implying that stretching of SELP molecules is a key molecular event for amyloid nucleation. The mechanically induced nucleation allows for positional and directional control of amyloid assembly in vitro, which we demonstrate by generating single nanofibers at predetermined nucleation sites.

Adhesion property profiles of supported thin polymer films

Polymer coatings are frequently utilized to control and modify substrate properties. The performance of the coatings is often determined by the first polymer layers between the substrate and the bulk polymer material, which are termed interphase. Standard methods have failed to completely characterize this interphase, because its properties change significantly over a few nanometers. Here we determine the spatially resolved adhesion properties of the interphase in polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) by desorbing a single polymer covalently bound to an atomic force microscope cantilever tip from PEMs with varying thickness. We show that the adhesion properties of the first few layers (up to three double layers) is dominated by the surface potential of the substrate, while thicker PEMs are controlled by cohesion in between the PEM polymers. For cohesion, the local film conformation is the crucial parameter. This finding is generalized by utilizing oligoelectrolyte multilayer (OEM) as coatings and both hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymers as polymeric force sensors.

Measuring the interaction between ions, biopolymers and interfaces--one polymer at a time

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) based single polymer force spectroscopy allows to detect the interaction (energy) between single polymers and interfaces in aqueous environment. We use this method to delineate the effect of ions, pH, co-solutes and temperature on the adhesion of biopolymers onto solid substrates.