title: Silica precipitation with synthetic silaffin peptides.
abstract: Silaffins are highly charged proteins which are one of the major contributing compounds that are thought to be responsible for the formation of the hierarchically structured silica-based cell walls of diatoms. Here we describe the synthesis of an oligo-propyleneamine substituted lysine derivative and its incorporation into the KXXK peptide motif occurring repeatedly in silaffins. N(ε)-alkylation of lysine was achieved by a Mitsunobu reaction to obtain a protected lysine derivative which is convenient for solid phase peptide synthesis. Quantitative silica precipitation experiments together with structural information about the precipitated silica structures gained by scanning electron microscopy revealed a dependence of the amount and form of the silica precipitates on the peptide structure.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Chemistry, Philipps-Universität Marburg, 35032, Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Ralph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wieneke
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bernecker
authors.forename: Radostan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Riedel
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sumper
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Steinem
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Geyer
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000737:chemistry; D017377:Diatoms / Q000737:chemistry; D008239:Lysine / Q000737:chemistry; D015394:Molecular Structure; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; C400535:silaffin 1A; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; D008239:Lysine