1 research outputs found
Diverse Supramolecular Nanofiber Networks Assembled by Functional Low-Complexity Domains
Self-assembling
supramolecular nanofibers, common in the natural
world, are of fundamental interest and technical importance to both
nanotechnology and materials science. Despite important advances,
synthetic nanofibers still lack the structural and functional diversity
of biological molecules, and the controlled assembly of one type of
molecule into a variety of fibrous structures with wide-ranging functional
attributes remains challenging. Here, we harness the low-complexity
(LC) sequence domain of fused in sarcoma (FUS) protein, an essential
cellular nuclear protein with slow kinetics of amyloid fiber assembly,
to construct random copolymer-like, multiblock, and self-sorted supramolecular
fibrous networks with distinct structural features and fluorescent
functionalities. We demonstrate the utilities of these networks in
the templated, spatially controlled assembly of ligand-decorated gold
nanoparticles, quantum dots, nanorods, DNA origami, and hybrid structures.
Owing to the distinguishable nanoarchitectures of these nanofibers,
this assembly is structure-dependent. By coupling a modular genetic
strategy with kinetically controlled complex supramolecular self-assembly,
we demonstrate that a single type of protein molecule can be used
to engineer diverse one-dimensional supramolecular nanostructures
with distinct functionalities