Protein Dimerization Induced by Supramolecular Interactions with Cucurbit[8]uril

Abstract

Hosted dimerization: Proteins such as yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) with an N-terminal FGG peptide motif form dimers mediated by supramolecular interactions with cucurbit[8]uril (see scheme). The protein dimerization, which is observed by FRET and size-exclusion chromatography, can be reversed with methyl viologen as a bioorthogonal ligand, which displaces the FGG motifs from the cucurbit[8]uril host.