title: Formation of bacterial pilus-like nanofibres by designed minimalistic self-assembling peptides.
abstract: Mimicking the multifunctional bacterial type IV pili (T4Ps) nanofibres provides an important avenue towards the development of new functional nanostructured biomaterials. Yet, the development of T4Ps-based applications is limited by the inability to form these nanofibres in vitro from their pilin monomers. Here, to overcome this limitation, we followed a reductionist approach and designed a self-assembling pilin-based 20-mer peptide, derived from the presumably bioelectronic pilin of Geobacter sulfurreducens. The designed 20-mer, which spans sequences from both the polymerization domain and the functionality region of the pilin, self-assembled into ordered nanofibres. Investigation of the 20-mer revealed that shorter sequences which correspond to the polymerization domain form a supramolecular β-sheet, contrary to their helical configuration in the native T4P core, due to alternative molecular recognition. In contrast, the sequence derived from the functionality region maintains a native-like, helical conformation. This study presents a new family of self-assembling peptides which form T4P-like nanostructures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Guterman
authors.affiliation: The Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Micha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kornreich
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemistry and The Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
authors.forename: Avigail
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stern
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Biology, The Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Lihi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Adler-Abramovich
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemistry and The Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
authors.forename: Danny
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Porath
authors.affiliation: The Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Roy
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3121-4530
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Research Support, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Linda J W
authors.initials: LJW
authors.lastname: Shimon
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.
authors.forename: Ehud
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gazit
mesh_terms: D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D010861:Fimbriae, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry*; D045302:Geobacter / Q000502:physiology*; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry*; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides