Protein segments with conformationally restricted amino acids can control supramolecular organization at the nanoscale

A study was conducted to demonstrate that pigment segments with conformationally restricted amino acids had the potential to control supramolecular organization at the nanoscale . The strategy revealed that it was preferable to select a naturally occurring building block presenting such a conformation and rigidify it through targeted replacements. Investigations revealed that the presence of additional substituents in the cycloalkane ring had the potential to modulate the conformational tendencies of the corresponding Ac_nc residue according to their size, orientation, and chemical nature. The relative stability of different molecular assemblies were also explored using atomistic simulations based on classic Force Fields. The simulations were performed using the Molecular Dynamics (MD) technique that involved numerically solving the Newton's equation of movement for a system represented by classical particles.