Resolving the Morphology of Peptoid Vesicles at the 1 nm Length Scale Using Cryogenic Electron Microscopy

Jiang, Xi; Spencer, Ryan K.; Sun, Jing; Ophus, Colin; Zuckermann, Ronald N.; Downing, Kenneth H.; Balsara, Nitash P.

doi:10.1021/acs.jpcb.8b11752

Title: Resolving the Morphology of Peptoid Vesicles at the 1 nm Length Scale Using Cryogenic Electron Microscopy

Journal Article · Thu Jan 10 00:00:00 EST 2019 · Journal of Physical Chemistry. B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.8b11752· OSTI ID:1492105

; Spencer, Ryan K.;

^[1]; Ophus, Colin;

;

^[2]

Key Laboratory of Biobased Polymer Materials, Shandong Provincial Education Department, School of Polymer Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States

Vesicle formation in a series of amphiphilic sequence-defined polypeptoid block co-polymers comprising a phosphonated hydrophilic block and an amorphous hydrophobic block, poly-N-(2-ethyl)hexylglycine-block-poly-N-phosphonomethylglycine (pNeh-b-pNpm), is studied. The hydrophobic/hydrophilic block ratio was varied keeping the total chain length of the co-polymers constant. A new approach for characterizing the vesicle membrane morphology based on low-dose cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is described. The individual low-dose micrographs cannot be interpreted directly due to low signal-to-noise ratio. Sorting and averaging techniques, developed in the context of protein structure determination, were thus applied to vesicle micrographs. Molecular dynamic simulations of the vesicles were used to establish the relationship between membrane morphology and averaged cryo-EM images. This approach enables resolution of the local thickness of the hydrophobic membrane core at the 1 nm length scale. The thickness of the hydrophobic core of the pNeh-b-pNpm membranes increases linearly with the length of the hydrophobic block.

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Research Organization:: University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1492105

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1508807; OSTI ID: 1594906

Journal Information:: Journal of Physical Chemistry. B, Journal Name: Journal of Physical Chemistry. B Vol. 123 Journal Issue: 5; ISSN 1520-6106

Publisher:: American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 14 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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