Silica Nanowires Templated by Amyloid-like Fibrils.

ABSTRACT: Many peptides self-assemble to form amyloid fibrils. We previously explored the sequence propensity to form amyloid using variants of a designed peptide with sequence KFFEAAAKKFFE. These variant peptides form highly stable amyloid fibrils with varied lateral assembly and are ideal to template further assembly of non-proteinaceous material. Herein, we show that the fibrils formed by peptide variants can be coated with a layer of silica to produce silica nanowires using tetraethyl-orthosilicate. The resulting nanowires were characterized using electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray fiber diffraction, FTIR and cross-section EM to reveal a nanostructure with peptidic core. Lysine residues play a role in templating the formation of silica on the fibril surface and, using this library of peptides, we

SUBMITTER: Al-Garawi ZS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4954120 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature