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ID 115631
Author
Afrin, Rehana Tokyo Institute of Technology
Ganbaatar, Narangerel Tokyo Institute of Technology
Aono, Masashi Tokyo Institute of Technology|Keio University
Cleaves II, H. James Tokyo Institute of Technology
Hara, Masahiko Tokyo Institute of Technology
Keywords
pyrite
mineral surface
atomic force microscopy
unbinding force measurements
glycine
oligo-glycines
peptides
single molecule interaction
origins of life
Content Type
Journal Article
Description
The interaction strength of progressively longer oligomers of glycine, (Gly), di-Gly, tri-Gly, and penta-Gly, with a natural pyrite surface was directly measured using the force mode of an atomic force microscope (AFM). In recent years, selective activation of abiotically formed amino acids on mineral surfaces, especially that of pyrite, has been proposed as an important step in many origins of life scenarios. To investigate such notions, we used AFM-based force measurements to probe possible non-covalent interactions between pyrite and amino acids, starting from the simplest amino acid, Gly. Although Gly itself interacted with the pyrite surface only weakly, progressively larger unbinding forces and binding frequencies were obtained using oligomers from di-Gly to penta-Gly. In addition to an expected increase of the configurational entropy and size-dependent van der Waals force, the increasing number of polar peptide bonds, among others, may be responsible for this observation. The effect of chain length was also investigated by performing similar experiments using L-lysine vs. poly-L-lysine (PLL), and L-glutamic acid vs. poly-L-glutamic acid. The results suggest that longer oligomers/polymers of amino acids can be preferentially adsorbed on pyrite surfaces.
Journal Title
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
ISSN
14220067
16616596
NCID
AA12038549
Publisher
MDPI
Volume
19
Issue
2
Start Page
365
Published Date
2018-01-25
Rights
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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DOI (Published Version)
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language
eng
TextVersion
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departments
Institute of Post-LED Photonics