{"doi":"10.1002/smll.202202642","title":"Molecular Insights into the Self‐Assembly of Block Copolymer Suckerin Polypeptides into Nanoconfined β‐Sheets","abstract":"Suckerin in squid sucker ring teeth is a block-copolymer peptide comprised of two repeating modules-the alanine and histidine-rich M1 and the glycine-rich M2. Suckerin self-assemblies display excellent thermo-plasticity and pH-responsive properties, along with the high biocompatibility, biodegradability, and sustainability. However, the self-assembly mechanism and the detailed role of each module are still elusive, limiting the capability of applying and manipulating such biomaterials. Here, the self-assembly dynamics of the two modules and two minimalist suckerin-mimetic block-copolymers, M1-M2-M1 and M2-M1-M2, in silico is investigated. The simulation results demonstrate that M2 has a stronger self-association but weaker β-sheet propensities than M1. The high self-assembly propensity of M2 allows the minimalist block-copolymer peptides to coalesce with microphase separation, enabling the formation of nanoconfined β-sheets in the matrix formed by M1-M2 contacts. Since these glycine-rich fragments with scatted hydrophobic and aromatic residues are building blocks of many other block-copolymer peptides, the study suggests that these modules function as the \"molecular glue\" in addition to the flexible linker or spacer to drive the self-assembly and microphase separation. The uncovered molecular insights may help understand the structure and function of suckerin and also aid in the design of functional block-copolymer peptides for nanotechnology and biomedicine applications.","journal":"Small","year":2022,"id":249451,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":28,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9552,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":889721,"name":"Ying Wang","orcid":"0000-0002-9847-4655","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":889722,"name":"Chaohui Tong","orcid":"0000-0002-5467-7282","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":504263,"name":"Guanghong Wei","orcid":"0000-0001-5814-3328","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":252249,"name":"Feng Ding","orcid":"0000-0003-1850-6336","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":364016,"name":"Yunxiang Sun","orcid":"0000-0001-9799-7131","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":740978,"name":"Yuying Liu","orcid":"0000-0002-9119-4925","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":78,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:24:19.356023Z","pmid":"35901284","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}