Stereoselective Self-Assembly Of Dna Binding Helicates Directed By The Viral Beta-Annulus Trimeric Peptide Motif

Combining coordination chemistry and peptide engineering offers extraordinary opportunities for developing novel molecular (supra)structures. Here, we demonstrate that the beta-annulus motif is capable of directing the stereoselective assembly of designed peptides containing 2,2'-bipyridine ligands into parallel three-stranded chiral peptide helicates, and that these helicates selectively bind with high affinity to three-way DNA junctions.