title: Self-assembling cages from coiled-coil peptide modules.
abstract: An ability to mimic the boundaries of biological compartments would improve our understanding of self-assembly and provide routes to new materials for the delivery of drugs and biologicals and the development of protocells. We show that short designed peptides can be combined to form unilamellar spheres approximately 100 nanometers in diameter. The design comprises two, noncovalent, heterodimeric and homotrimeric coiled-coil bundles. These are joined back to back to render two complementary hubs, which when mixed form hexagonal networks that close to form cages. This design strategy offers control over chemistry, self-assembly, reversibility, and size of such particles.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Cantock's Close, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK.
authors.forename: Jordan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.forename: Robert L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Harniman
authors.forename: Frederick R H
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Barnes
authors.forename: Aimee L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Boyle
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mantell
authors.forename: Thomas H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Sharp
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Antognozzi
authors.forename: Paula J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Booth
authors.forename: Noah
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Linden
authors.forename: Mervyn J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Miles
authors.forename: Richard B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Sessions
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verkade
authors.forename: Derek N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Woolfson
mesh_terms: D002942:Circular Dichroism; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D008958:Models, Molecular; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D049329:Nanostructures; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017510:Protein Folding; D055503:Protein Multimerization; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides