Dye Aggregate-Mediated Self-Assembly of Bacteriophage Bioconjugates

Abstract

One of the central themes of biomolecular engineering is the challenge of exploiting the properties of biological materials. Part of this challenge has been uncovering and harnessing properties of biological components that only emerge following their ordered self-assembly. One biomolecular building block that has received significant interest in the past decade is the M13 bacteriophage. There have been a number of recent attempts to trigger the ordered assembly of M13 bacteriophage into multivirion structures, relying on the innate tendency of M13 to form liquid crystals at high concentrations. These, in general, yield planar two-dimensional materials. Presented here is the production of multivirion assemblies of M13 bacteriophage via the chemical modification of its surface by the covalent attachment of the xanthene-based dye tetramethylrhodamine (TMR) isothiocyanate (TRITC). We show that TMR induces the formation of three-dimensional aster-like assemblies of M13 by providing “adhesive” action between bacteriophage particles through the formation of H-aggregates (face-to-face stacking of dye molecules). We also show that the H-aggregation of TMR is greatly enhanced by covalent attachment to M13 and is enhanced further still upon the ordered self-assembly of M13, leading to the suggestion that M13 could be used to promote the self-assembly of dyes that form J-aggregates, a desirable arrangement of fluorescent dye, which has interesting optical properties and potential applications in the fields of medicine and light harvesting technology.

Determination and characterisation of the surface charge properties of the bacteriophage M13 to assist bio-nanoengineering

“…Collectively, our method can enable the design of alternative versions of the M13 both, chemically modied and genetically engineered, to be employed in the nano-assemblies based both on intermolecular interactions and covalent bonds. [35][36][37][38]…”

Molecular Insight into Dye–Surfactant Interaction at Premicellar Concentrations: A Combined Two-Photon Absorption and Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study

“…Dye–surfactant interaction has a great impact in dye industries as surfactants are widely used to wet and level dyes. Such interactions are complex in nature and strongly depend on the chemical structures of both the dye and the surfactant. , There have been numerous applications for the dye–surfactant aggregation phenomenon, including chemical research, wastewater treatment, dopants, light-harvesting applications, chemosensor applications in pathology, etc. − It is well accepted that charged dyes can form molecular complexes/aggregates with oppositely charged surfactants through electrostatic interaction. ,− These aggregates could be either of H type (sandwich-type aggregation in which the dyes show a blueshift in the absorption spectrum) or of J type (head-to-tail aggregation in which the dyes show a redshift in the absorption spectrum) . As the surfactants start forming micelles, such complexes are dissolved and the dyes accumulate into the micelles .…”