Abstract
Light-driven nano/micromotors are attracting much attention, not only as molecular devices but also as components of bioinspired robots. In nature, several pathogens such as Listeria use actin polymerisation machinery for their propulsion. Despite the development of various motors, it remains challenging to mimic natural systems to create artificial motors propelled by fibre formation. Herein, we report the propulsion of giant liposomes driven by light-induced peptide nanofibre growth on their surface. Peptide-DNA conjugates connected by a photocleavage unit were asymmetrically introduced onto phase-separated giant liposomes. Ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation cleaved the conjugates and released peptide units, which self-assembled into nanofibres, driving the translational movement of the liposomes. The velocity of the liposomes reflected the rates of the photocleavage reaction and subsequent fibre formation of the peptide-DNA conjugates. These results showed that chemical design of the light-induced peptide nanofibre formation is a useful approach to fabricating bioinspired motors with controllable motility.
Highlights
Molecular robotics is a recently emerged concept for the construction of bioinspired robots composed of nanoand micro-scale devices, such as sensors, logic circuits and actuators[1,2,3]
To design new light-driven motors, we focused on the self-propelled motility of several bacterial pathogens driven by nanofibre growth
The moving mechanisms of Listeria have been investigated by the activation of actin polymerisation on the surface of liposomes and polystyrene microspheres, which has been achieved by coating them with the Listeria transmembrane protein ActA43,44
Summary
Molecular robotics is a recently emerged concept for the construction of bioinspired robots composed of nanoand micro-scale devices, such as sensors, logic circuits and actuators[1,2,3]. Sugawara et al constructed oil droplets in a metal-free system This was done by decomposing photolabile 2-nitrobenzyl oleate by UV light irradiation to generate a partial oleic acid distribution on the surface, resulting in the propulsion of oil droplets by the Marangoni effect[29]. The released peptides subsequently self-assembled to form nanofibres, which could induce propulsion of the liposome by a mechanism similar to actin polymerisation-induced motility. We previously reported a light-induced peptide nanofibre growth system using conjugate 1, consisting of β-sheet-forming FKFEFKFE peptide and addressing single-stranded DNA (dA20), which are linked by a photo-cleavable amino acid X (Fig. 1b)[49]. Conjugates 1 and 2 were introduced onto the surfaces of the liposomes, and the light-induced translational movements of the liposomes were analysed
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
