Kinetically trapped self-assembly in synthetic nucleopeptides and nucleotides

Abstract

Nature uses thermodynamically unfavourable dynamic self-assembly to execute cellular functions frequently. A nucleopeptide and ATP formed a self-assembled hydrogel. The peptide and AMP were unable to form a hydrogel. Notably, when ATP was hydrolyzed to AMP in situ by an ATPase enzyme, the peptide–AMP composition remained a self-assembled hydrogel, showing unusual kinetically trapped self-assembly.