Light Driven Conformational Switching: An Approach to Creating Designed Protein Motion

Biomolecular motors have inspired the design and construction of artificial nanoscale motors and machines based on nucleic acids, small molecules, and inorganic nanostructures. However, the high degree of sophistication and efficiency of biomolecular motors derives from the complexity afforded by protein building blocks. Here, we discuss a novel bottom-up approach to understanding biological motors and present a class of designs for synthetic protein motors that move along a linear DNA track.This presentation will focus on two aspects of the motor design. Firstly the use of self-assembling components whose function is to co-localise the necessary motor functions. We demonstrate that a coiled coil template can be adapted in order to program the self-assembly of three different coiled coils from a solution of six peptides.Secondly the role of linkers between components in controlling dynamics and hence both processivity and power strokes within our motor designs will be discussed. The use of cis-trans isomerization of azobenzene as a mechanism for driving conformational change within the motor will be demonstrated.1. The Tumbleweed: towards a synthetic protein motor, EHC Bromley et al. HFSP J. 3, 204-212 (2009).2. Tuning the performance of an artificial protein motor, NJ Kuwada et al. Phys. Rev. E 84(3) 031922 (2011).3. Designed α-Helical Tectons for Constructing Multicomponent Synthetic Biological Systems EHC Bromley et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131, 928-930 (2009).4. Squaring the circle in peptide assembly: From fibers to discrete Nanostructures by de Novo Design. AL Boyle et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 134, 15457-15467 (2012).