Structural studies of amphiphilic 4-helix bundle peptides incorporating designed extended chromophores for nonlinear optical biomolecular materials.

Strzalka, Joseph; Xu, Ting; Tronin, Andrey; Wu, Sophia P; Miloradovic, Ivan; Kuzmenko, Ivan; Gog, Thomas; Therien, Michael J et al. · Nano Lett · 2006

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Extended conjugated chromophores containing (porphinato)zinc components that exhibit large optical polarizabilities and hyperpolarizabiliites are incorporated into amphiphilic 4-helix bundle peptides via specific axial histidyl ligation of the metal. The bundle's designed amphiphilicity enables vectorial orientation of the chromophore/peptide complex in macroscopic monolayer ensembles. The 4-helix bundle structure is maintained upon incorporation of two different chromophores at stoichiometries of 1-2 per bundle. The axial ligation site appears to effectively control the position of the chromophore along the length of the bundle.

Medical subject headings