Nanostructure Transition of Dipeptide for DNA Delivery and Biosynthesis of ATP Driven by Molecular Motors

Seminar by Junbai Li from the Chinese Academy of science

Molecular biomimetic systems are becoming important in providing models to fabricate particular functional materials. The lipid bilayers assembled onto the protein surface may serve as a biomimetic membrane model as well as create a connection between biological systems and the assembled nanostructure. Several molecular biomimetic systems have been recently developed in our group. With this talk I will introduce a specific system of which a cationic dipeptide can be self-assembled into nanotubes at physiological pH conditions. Such self assembled nanotubes are able to convert into vesicles spontaneously by diluting the solution in carrying ss-DNA to traverse across the biomembrane into HeLa cells.
ATP synthase (ATPase), the smallest molecular motor in nature composed of two linked multi-subunit complexes, a membrane-embedded Fo part and a hydrophilic F1 part, can drive the production of ATP by utilizing proton gradients. We reonstituted ATPase in assembled lipid-coated polymer microcapsules to imitate the motion in the living cell governed by molecular motors.
Kinesin is a dimeric motor protein that can carry beads to run along a microtube. Similarly, the assembled microcapsules modified with kinesin as cargoes can be driven by molecular motor along the microtubules