title: Peptide secondary structure modulates single-walled carbon nanotube fluorescence as a chaperone sensor for nitroaromatics.
abstract: A class of peptides from the bombolitin family, not previously identified for nitroaromatic recognition, allows near-infrared fluorescent single-walled carbon nanotubes to transduce specific changes in their conformation. In response to the binding of specific nitroaromatic species, such peptide-nanotube complexes form a virtual "chaperone sensor," which reports modulation of the peptide secondary structure via changes in single-walled carbon nanotubes, near-infrared photoluminescence. A split-channel microscope constructed to image quantized spectral wavelength shifts in real time, in response to nitroaromatic adsorption, results in the first single-nanotube imaging of solvatochromic events. The described indirect detection mechanism, as well as an additional exciton quenching-based optical nitroaromatic detection method, illustrate that functionalization of the carbon nanotube surface can result in completely unique sites for recognition, resolvable at the single-molecule level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Heller
authors.forename: George W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Pratt
authors.forename: Jingqing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Nitish
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.forename: Adam J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Hansborough
authors.forename: Ardemis A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Boghossian
authors.forename: Nigel F
authors.initials: NF
authors.lastname: Reuel
authors.forename: Paul W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Barone
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Strano
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D005453:Fluorescence; D006841:Hydrocarbons, Aromatic / Q000032:analysis*; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation; D018832:Molecular Chaperones / Q000032:analysis*; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D009574:Nitro Compounds / Q000032:analysis*; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary
chemical_list: D006841:Hydrocarbons, Aromatic; D018832:Molecular Chaperones; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D009574:Nitro Compounds; D010455:Peptides; C044299:bombolitins