title: Nanomaterial building blocks based on spider silk-oligonucleotide conjugates.
abstract: Self-assembling protein nanofibrils are promising structures for the "bottom-up" fabrication of bionanomaterials. Here, the recombinant protein eADF4(C16), a variant of Araneus diadematus dragline silk ADF4, which self-assembles into nanofibrils, and short oligonucleotides were modified for site-specific azide-alkyne coupling. Corresponding oligonuleotide-eADF4(C16) "click" conjugates were hybridized in linear or branched fashion according to the designed complementarities of the DNA moieties. Self-assembly properties of higher ordered structures of the spider silk-DNA conjugates were dominated by the silk component. Assembled β-sheet rich conjugate fibrils were similar in appearance to fibrils of unmodified eADF4(C16) but enabled the specific attachment of neutravidin-modified gold nanoparticles on their surface directed by complementary biotin-oligonucleotides, providing the basis for functionalization of such conjugates.
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl Biomaterialien, Fakultät für Ingenieurwissenschaften, Universität Bayreuth , Universitätsstraße 30, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Humenik
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Scheibel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry; D049329:Nanostructures; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry*; D047011:Silk / Q000737:chemistry*; D013057:Spectrum Analysis; D013112:Spiders
chemical_list: D009841:Oligonucleotides; D047011:Silk; D004247:DNA