Temperature-Triggered Nanoscale Morphological Transitions in a Synthetic Intrinsically Disordered Protein.

Authors

Yulia Shmidov, Lixin Fan, Max Ney, Sonal Deshpande, Parul Sirohi, Joshua J Milligan, Ashutosh Chilkoti

Published in

Biomacromolecules. Volume 27. Issue 9. Pages 5898-5907. Sep 14, 2026.

Abstract

Peptide self-assembly and liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), often mediated by intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), are natural mechanisms that translate protein molecular features into complex nano- and mesoscale architectures. Although the thermodynamics and kinetics of these processes are well understood, synthetic materials integrating both functionalities remain rare. Inspired by the conserved IDR-assembly domain (AD) architecture of amyloidogenic proteins, we hypothesized that modular recombinant constructs combining LLPS-capable IDRs with β-sheet-forming ADs could generate materials with tunable structural properties. To test this, we engineered a library of elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) fused to amphiphilic anionic or cationic amyloidogenic peptides, enabling systematic investigation of how sequence parameters─including ELP length, AD charge, and hydrophilicity─and environmental conditions, including temperature, pH, and salt concentration, influence material behavior. Our results reveal links between molecular design and emergent multiscale structures, including micelles and vesicles embedded within coacervates. This work provides a framework for designing hybrid proteins coupling LLPS and self-assembly.

PMID:
42734274
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 14 Sep 2026.

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