title: Light-emitting self-assembled peptide nucleic acids exhibit both stacking interactions and Watson-Crick base pairing.
abstract: The two main branches of bionanotechnology involve the self-assembly of either peptides or DNA. Peptide scaffolds offer chemical versatility, architectural flexibility and structural complexity, but they lack the precise base pairing and molecular recognition available with nucleic acid assemblies. Here, inspired by the ability of aromatic dipeptides to form ordered nanostructures with unique physical properties, we explore the assembly of peptide nucleic acids (PNAs), which are short DNA mimics that have an amide backbone. All 16 combinations of the very short di-PNA building blocks were synthesized and assayed for their ability to self-associate. Only three guanine-containing di-PNAs-CG, GC and GG-could form ordered assemblies, as observed by electron microscopy, and these di-PNAs efficiently assembled into discrete architectures within a few minutes. The X-ray crystal structure of the GC di-PNA showed the occurrence of both stacking interactions and Watson-Crick base pairing. The assemblies were also found to exhibit optical properties including voltage-dependent electroluminescence and wide-range excitation-dependent fluorescence in the visible region.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Or
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Lihi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Adler-Abramovich
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Levy-Sakin
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Assaf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grunwald
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Yael
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liebes-Peer
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Mor
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bachar
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Ludmila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Buzhansky
authors.affiliation: 1] Partnership for Structural Biology, Institut Laue Langevin, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, Grenoble Cedex 9 38042, France [2] Faculty of Natural Sciences, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK.
authors.forename: Estelle
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mossou
authors.affiliation: 1] Partnership for Structural Biology, Institut Laue Langevin, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, Grenoble Cedex 9 38042, France [2] Faculty of Natural Sciences, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK.
authors.forename: V Trevor
authors.initials: VT
authors.lastname: Forsyth
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Tal
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Yuval
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ebenstein
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel [2] Daniella Rich Institute for Structural Biology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Frolow
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Research Support, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Linda J W
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Shimon
authors.affiliation: 1] School of Chemistry, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel [2] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Patolsky
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel [2] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Ehud
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gazit
mesh_terms: D020029:Base Pairing; D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods*; D008027:Light; D008163:Luminescent Measurements / Q000379:methods*; D008422:Materials Testing; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D020135:Peptide Nucleic Acids / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D020135:Peptide Nucleic Acids