Substrate-induced assembly of cascade enzymes and catalytic surfactants: nanoarchitectonics at the oil-in-water droplet interface

Abstract

The distribution of lipids and lipid-bound proteins is heterogeneous in plasma membrane for functional advantages. Herein, in a synthetic system, we demonstrate assembly of three enzymes involved in cascade reactions, in response to the substrate of the first enzyme at the oil-water interface stabilized by a Zn(II)-metallosurfactant. Then we show substrate-mediated catalytically-active cluster formation of the metallosurfactant in a binary mixture having another non-catalytic surfactant at the interface. The catalytic ability can be tuned by controlling the clustering through the addition of phosphate ions. Overall this work demonstrates functionally diverse supramolecular nanoarchitectonics at the oil-water interface.