title: Casting metal nanowires within discrete self-assembled peptide nanotubes.
abstract: Tubular nanostructures are suggested to have a wide range of applications in nanotechnology. We report our observation of the self-assembly of a very short peptide, the Alzheimer's beta-amyloid diphenylalanine structural motif, into discrete and stiff nanotubes. Reduction of ionic silver within the nanotubes, followed by enzymatic degradation of the peptide backbone, resulted in the production of discrete nanowires with a long persistence length. The same dipeptide building block, made of D-phenylalanine, resulted in the production of enzymatically stable nanotubes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Meital
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reches
authors.forename: Ehud
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gazit
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000737:chemistry; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D001718:Birefringence; D004151:Dipeptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D036103:Nanotechnology; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D011487:Protein Conformation; D012834:Silver; D012995:Solubility; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D004151:Dipeptides; C026650:phenylalanylphenylalanine; D012834:Silver