title: A minimal length rigid helical peptide motif allows rational design of modular surfactants.
abstract: Extensive work has been invested in the design of bio-inspired peptide emulsifiers. Yet, none of the formulated surfactants were based on the utilization of the robust conformation and self-assembly tendencies presented by the hydrophobins, which exhibited highest surface activity among all known proteins. Here we show that a minimalist design scheme could be employed to fabricate rigid helical peptides to mimic the rigid conformation and the helical amphipathic organization. These designer building blocks, containing natural non-coded α-aminoisobutyric acid (Aib), form superhelical assemblies as confirmed by crystallography and microscopy. The peptide sequence is amenable to structural modularity and provides the highest stable emulsions reported so far for peptide and protein emulsifiers. Moreover, we establish the ability of short peptides to perform the dual functions of emulsifiers and thickeners, a feature that typically requires synergistic effects of surfactants and polysaccharides. This work provides a different paradigm for the molecular engineering of bioemulsifiers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Sudipta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mondal
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva 84105, Israel.
authors.forename: Maxim
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Varenik
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva 84105, Israel.
authors.forename: Daniel Nir
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Bloch
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva 84105, Israel.
authors.forename: Yoav
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6476-9845
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Atsmon-Raz
authors.affiliation: The Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jacoby
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Biology, The Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Lihi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Adler-Abramovich
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: The Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Roy
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3121-4530
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva 84105, Israel.|Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva 84105, Israel.
authors.forename: Yifat
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva 84105, Israel.
authors.forename: Oren
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Regev
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Ehud
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gazit
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000621:Aminoisobutyric Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D003461:Crystallography; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D013501:Surface-Active Agents / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000621:Aminoisobutyric Acids; D010455:Peptides; D011506:Proteins; D013501:Surface-Active Agents; C100049:2-aminoisobutyric acid