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Hierarchical Self‐Assembly of Poly‐Pseudorotaxanes into Artificial Microtubules
Author(s) -
Hwang Wooseup,
Yoo Jejoong,
Hwang InChul,
Lee Jiyeon,
Ko Young Ho,
Kim Hyun Woo,
Kim Younghoon,
Lee Yeonsang,
Hur Moon Young,
Park Kyeng Min,
Seo Jongcheol,
Baek Kangkyun,
Kim Kimoon
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201913384
Subject(s) - self assembly , microtubule , nanotechnology , block (permutation group theory) , molecule , tubulin , nanometre , crystallography , chemistry , materials science , chemical physics , biophysics , biology , geometry , mathematics , organic chemistry , composite material , microbiology and biotechnology
Hierarchical self‐assembly of building blocks over multiple length scales is ubiquitous in living organisms. Microtubules are one of the principal cellular components formed by hierarchical self‐assembly of nanometer‐sized tubulin heterodimers into protofilaments, which then associate to form micron‐length‐scale, multi‐stranded tubes. This peculiar biological process is now mimicked with a fully synthetic molecule, which forms a 1:1 host‐guest complex with cucurbit[7]uril as a globular building block, and then polymerizes into linear poly‐pseudorotaxanes that associate laterally with each other in a self‐shape‐complementary manner to form a tubular structure with a length over tens of micrometers. Molecular dynamic simulations suggest that the tubular assembly consists of eight poly‐pseudorotaxanes that wind together to form a 4.5 nm wide multi‐stranded tubule.