title: Rational design of a photo-responsive UVR8-derived protein and a self-assembling peptide-protein conjugate for responsive hydrogel formation.
abstract: Responsive hydrogels hold great potential in controllable drug delivery, regenerative medicine, sensing, etc. We introduced in this study the first example of a photo-responsive protein for hydrogel formation. Based on the first example of the crystal structure of a photo-responsive protein, Arabidopsis thaliana protein UVR8, we designed and expressed its derived protein UVR8-1 with a hexa-peptide WRESAI. We also prepared supramolecular nanofibers with a TIP-1 protein at their surface. The simple mixing of these two components resulted in rapid hydrogel formation through the specific interactions between the protein TIP-1 and the peptide WRESAI. Since the protein could show a reversible dimer-monomer transformation, the resulting gels also showed a reversible gel-sol phase transition which was controlled by photo-irradiation. The photo-controllable gel-sol phase transition could be applied for protein delivery and cell separation.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Life Sciences and Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, Nankai University, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin 300071, P. R. China. wangtingliang@tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Chunming
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Weiyun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Huaimin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Jiafu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Long
authors.forename: Tingliang
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhimou
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000217:Acyltransferases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000737:chemistry*; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone; D020100:Hydrogels; D010455:Peptides; C525052:Uvr8 protein, Arabidopsis; D000217:Acyltransferases; C506684:TIP1 protein, Arabidopsis