Phosphobisaromatic motifs enable rapid enzymatic self-assembly and hydrogelation of short peptides

Abstract

Enzyme-instructed self-assembly (EISA) and hydrogelation is a versatile approach for generating soft materials. Most of the substrates for alkaline phosphatase catalysed EISA utilize phosphotyrosine (_pTyr) as the enzymatic trigger for EISA and hydrogelation. Here we show the first example of phosphonaphthyl (_pNP) and phosphobiphenyl (_pBP) motifs acting as faster enzymatic triggers than phosphotyrosine for EISA and hydrogelation. This work illustrates novel enzyme triggers for rapid enzymatic self-assembly and hydrogelation.