Spontaneous and X-ray-triggered Crystallization at Long Range in Self-assembling Filament Networks

Overview

Journal Science

Specialty Science

Date 2009 Dec 19

PMID 20019248

Citations 46

Authors

Honggang Cui

E Thomas Pashuck

Yuri S Velichko

Steven J Weigand

Andrew G Cheetham

Christina J Newcomb

Samuel I Stupp

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We report here crystallization at long range in networks of like-charge supramolecular peptide filaments mediated by repulsive forces. The crystallization is spontaneous beyond a given concentration of the molecules that form the filaments but can be triggered by x-rays at lower concentrations. The crystalline domains formed by x-ray irradiation, with interfilament separations of up to 320 angstroms, can be stable for hours after the beam is turned off, and ions that screen charges on the filaments suppress ordering. We hypothesize that the stability of crystalline domains emerges from a balance of repulsive tensions linked to native or x-ray-induced charges and the mechanical compressive entrapment of filaments within a network. Similar phenomena may occur naturally in the cytoskeleton of cells and, if induced externally in biological or artificial systems, lead to possible biomedical and lithographic functions.

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