(614e) Reversible Bridging Forces Between Dopa-Containing Protein/Biopolymer Films in Water

Metal-containing polymer networks are widespread in biology particularly for load bearing exoskeletal biomaterials. Mytilus byssal cuticle is an especially interesting case containing moderate levels of Fe(III) and cuticle protein? mussel foot protein-1 (mfp-1), which has peculiar combination of high hardness and high extensibility. Mfp-1, containing 13 mol% of dopa (3, 4-dihydroxyphenylalanine) side-chains, is highly positively charged polyelectrolyte (pI ~10) and didn't show any cohesive interaction via previous surface forces apparatus (SFA) studies. Here we show some recent results about the Fe(III) induced strong and reversible binding between mussel foot proteins and biomimetic polymers, using a surface forces apparatus (SFA) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Our results has considerable potential for wet industrial and biomedical applications, which may provide an energetic new paradigm for engineering strong, self-healing interactions between polymers under water.

Reference: H. Zeng, D.S. Hwang, J.N. Israelachvili, and J. H. Waite, PNAS, 2010 (accepted and in press)