Programmable soft nanoscale materials have myriad potential applications in materials science and medicine. Here, we introduce peptide-oligonucleotide chimeras (POCs) as a class of programmable building blocks for the construction of soft nanoscale matter. The POCs consist of a peptide portion and an oligonucleotide portion bridged together via a biphenyl linkage. Two specific POCs were studied: PO18C and PO6C, where P is a 12-residue peptide and O18 and O6 are 18-mer and 6-mer oligonucleotides, respectively. Their assembly behavior in aqueous media was studied as a function of temperature and ionic strength. Our results reveal that POCs can assemble into vesicles or 1D helical fibers, depending on the oligonucleotide length and the ionic strength. The assembly of β-sheets, as evidenced by FTIR spectroscopy, influences fiber formation. Both POCs can assemble into either vesicles or fibers, depending on the ionic strength of the assembly solution. These studies reveal that both biomolecular segments influence the assembly morphology, and they point toward using POCs for the construction of materials that can undergo morphological changes based on various external conditions and stimuli.

Peptide-Oligonucleotide Chimeras (POCs):  Programmable building blocks for the construction of soft nanoscale matter

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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