The effect of chain length and conformation on the nucleation of glycine homopeptides during the crystallization process.
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
To explore the effect of chain length and conformation on the nucleation of peptides, the primary nucleation induction time of glycine homopeptides in pure water at different supersaturation levels under various temperatures has been determined. Nucleation data suggest that longer chains will prolong the induction time, especially for chains longer than three, where nucleation will occur over several days. In contrast, the nucleation rate increased with an increase in the supersaturation for all homopeptides. Induction time and nucleation difficulty increase at lower temperatures. However, for triglycine, the dihydrate form was produced with an unfolded peptide conformation (pPII) at low temperature. The interfacial energy and activation Gibbs energy of this dihydrate form are both lower than those at high temperature, while the induction time is longer, indicating the classical nucleation theory is not suitable to explain the nucleation phenomenon of triglycine dihydrate. Moreover, gelation and liquid-liquid separation of longer chain glycine homopeptides were observed, which was normally classified to nonclassical nucleation theory. This work provides insight into how the nucleation process evolves with increasing chain length and variable conformation, thereby offering a fundamental understanding of the critical peptide chain length for the classical nucleation theory and complex nucleation process for peptides.
Date Issued
2023-03-01
Date Acceptance
2023-01-01
Citation
Crystal Growth and Design, 2023, 23 (3), pp.1668-1675
ISSN
1528-7483
Publisher
American Chemical Society
Start Page
1668
End Page
1675
Journal / Book Title
Crystal Growth and Design
Volume
23
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society. This work is published under a CC BY licence.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36879769
Publication Status
Published online
Coverage Spatial
United States
Date Publish Online
2023-01-24