Nature Communications (Nov 2019)

Enzyme-mimetic self-catalyzed polymerization of polypeptide helices

  • Ziyuan Song,
  • Hailin Fu,
  • Ryan Baumgartner,
  • Lingyang Zhu,
  • Kuo-Chih Shih,
  • Yingchun Xia,
  • Xuetao Zheng,
  • Lichen Yin,
  • Christophe Chipot,
  • Yao Lin,
  • Jianjun Cheng

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13502-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 7

Abstract

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The folding-dependent catalytic behavior of enzymes is of fundamental biological importance, yet mechanistically underexplored. Here, the authors show that an α-helix, commonly found in proteins, can facilitate its own growth through the self-catalyzed polymerization of N-carboxyanhydride in solvents with low polarity.