title: Mechanical tuning of molecular machines for nucleotide recognition at the air-water interface.
abstract: Molecular machines embedded in a Langmuir monolayer at the air-water interface can be operated by application of lateral pressure. As part of the challenge associated with versatile sensing of biologically important substances, we here demonstrate discrimination of nucleotides by applying a cholesterol-armed-triazacyclononane host molecule. This molecular machine can discriminate ribonucleotides based on a twofold to tenfold difference in binding constants under optimized conditions including accompanying ions in the subphase and lateral surface pressures of its Langmuir monolayer. The concept of mechanical tuning of the host structure for optimization of molecular recognition should become a novel methodology in bio-related nanotechnology as an alternative to traditional strategies based on increasingly complex and inconvenient molecular design strategies.
authors.affiliation: World Premier International (WPI) Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan. ARIGA.Katsuhiko@nims.go.jp.
authors.forename: Taizo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Endo
authors.forename: Keita
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sakakibara
authors.forename: Jonathan P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shinoda
authors.forename: Miki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsukura
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tsukube
authors.forename: Yasumasa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Yasumasa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kanekiyo
authors.forename: Katsuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ariga