Fibers with integrated mechanochemical switches: minimalistic design principles derived from fibronectin.

ABSTRACT: Inspired by molecular mechanisms that cells exploit to sense mechanical forces and convert them into biochemical signals, chemists dream of designing mechanochemical switches integrated into materials. Using the adhesion protein fibronectin, whose multiple repeats essentially display distinct molecular recognition motifs, we derived a computational model to explain how minimalistic designs of repeats translate into the mechanical characteristics of their fibrillar assemblies. The hierarchy of repeat-unfolding within fibrils is controlled not only by their relative mechanical stabilities, as found for single molecules, but also by the strength of cryptic interactions between adjacent molecules that become activated by stretching. The force-induced exposure of cryptic sites furthermore regul

SUBMITTER: Peleg O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3491717 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature