Synthetic flagella spin and contract at the expense of chemical fuel

Brigitte A.K. Kriebisch; Christine M.E. Kriebisch; Hamish W.A. Swanson; Daniel Bublitz; Massimo Kube; Alexander M. Bergmann; Alexander van Teijlingen; Zoe MacPherson; Aras Kartouzian; Hendrik Dietz; Matthias Rief; Tell Tuttle; Job Boekhoven

doi:10.1016/j.chempr.2024.08.016

Synthetic flagella spin and contract at the expense of chemical fuel

Brigitte A.K. Kriebisch, Christine M.E. Kriebisch, Hamish W.A. Swanson, Daniel Bublitz, Massimo Kube, Alexander M. Bergmann, Alexander van Teijlingen, Zoe MacPherson, Aras Kartouzian, Hendrik Dietz, Matthias Rief, Tell Tuttle, Job Boekhoven^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Psychological Sciences And Health

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

New mechanisms that transduce chemical potential into work are needed to advance the field of nanotechnology, with the ATP-fueled archaeal flagellar rotational motor being the ultimate inspiration. We describe microns-long ribbons assembled from small peptides that catalyze the conversion of a nanometer-sized molecular fuel. This conversion drives a morphological transition of the flat nanoribbons into helical ones and eventually into tubes, which makes the ribbons spin. Remarkably, the spinning speed and directionality can be tuned by molecular design. Moreover, the nanoribbons exert pN forces on their surroundings, allowing them to push micron-sized objects or even crawl. Our work demonstrates a new mechanism by which chemical energy at the nanometer level is used to power micron-sized machinery. We envision such new mechanisms opening the door to micro- and nanoscale autonomous machines.

Original language	English
Article number	102293
Journal	Chem
Volume	11
Issue number	1
Early online date	16 Sept 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2024.08.016
Publication status	Published - 9 Jan 2025

Funding

The BoekhovenLab is grateful for support from the TUM Innovation Network—RISE funded through the Excellence Strategy. This research was conducted within the Max Planck School Matter to Life, supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in collaboration with the Max Planck Society. B.A.K.K. is grateful for a Kekulé-Stipendium by the Verbandes der Chemischen Industrie. J.B. is grateful for funding from the European Research Council (ERC starting grant 852187) and the Volkswagen Foundation via the Life? program. H.W.A.S. thanks the Carnegie Trust for funding. Computational results were obtained using the EPSRC-funded ARCHIE WeSt High-Performance Computer (www.archie-west.ac.uk; EPSRC grant EP/K000586/1).

Keywords

chemically powered motion
contraction force
energy transduction
microscale machinery
microwalkers
molecular self-assembly
morphological transition
nanotechnology
peptide ribbons
SDG9: Industry, innovation, and infrastructure
unidirectional motion

Access to Document

10.1016/j.chempr.2024.08.016Licence: CC BY 4.0

Kriebisch-etal-2024-Chem-Synthetic-flagella-spin-and-contract-at-the-expense-of-chemical-fuelFinal published version, 5.7 MBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

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title = "Synthetic flagella spin and contract at the expense of chemical fuel",

abstract = "New mechanisms that transduce chemical potential into work are needed to advance the field of nanotechnology, with the ATP-fueled archaeal flagellar rotational motor being the ultimate inspiration. We describe microns-long ribbons assembled from small peptides that catalyze the conversion of a nanometer-sized molecular fuel. This conversion drives a morphological transition of the flat nanoribbons into helical ones and eventually into tubes, which makes the ribbons spin. Remarkably, the spinning speed and directionality can be tuned by molecular design. Moreover, the nanoribbons exert pN forces on their surroundings, allowing them to push micron-sized objects or even crawl. Our work demonstrates a new mechanism by which chemical energy at the nanometer level is used to power micron-sized machinery. We envision such new mechanisms opening the door to micro- and nanoscale autonomous machines.",

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AU - Bublitz, Daniel

AU - Kube, Massimo

AU - Bergmann, Alexander M.

AU - van Teijlingen, Alexander

AU - MacPherson, Zoe

AU - Kartouzian, Aras

AU - Dietz, Hendrik

AU - Rief, Matthias

AU - Tuttle, Tell

AU - Boekhoven, Job

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N2 - New mechanisms that transduce chemical potential into work are needed to advance the field of nanotechnology, with the ATP-fueled archaeal flagellar rotational motor being the ultimate inspiration. We describe microns-long ribbons assembled from small peptides that catalyze the conversion of a nanometer-sized molecular fuel. This conversion drives a morphological transition of the flat nanoribbons into helical ones and eventually into tubes, which makes the ribbons spin. Remarkably, the spinning speed and directionality can be tuned by molecular design. Moreover, the nanoribbons exert pN forces on their surroundings, allowing them to push micron-sized objects or even crawl. Our work demonstrates a new mechanism by which chemical energy at the nanometer level is used to power micron-sized machinery. We envision such new mechanisms opening the door to micro- and nanoscale autonomous machines.

AB - New mechanisms that transduce chemical potential into work are needed to advance the field of nanotechnology, with the ATP-fueled archaeal flagellar rotational motor being the ultimate inspiration. We describe microns-long ribbons assembled from small peptides that catalyze the conversion of a nanometer-sized molecular fuel. This conversion drives a morphological transition of the flat nanoribbons into helical ones and eventually into tubes, which makes the ribbons spin. Remarkably, the spinning speed and directionality can be tuned by molecular design. Moreover, the nanoribbons exert pN forces on their surroundings, allowing them to push micron-sized objects or even crawl. Our work demonstrates a new mechanism by which chemical energy at the nanometer level is used to power micron-sized machinery. We envision such new mechanisms opening the door to micro- and nanoscale autonomous machines.

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Synthetic flagella spin and contract at the expense of chemical fuel

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ARCHIE-WeSt (UOSHPC)

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Synthetic flagella spin and contract at the expense of chemical fuel

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ARCHIE-WeSt (UOSHPC)

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