Journal article
Molecular sensitised probe for amino acid recognition within peptide sequences
- Abstract:
- The combination of low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy with a mass-selective electro-spray ion-beam deposition established the investigation of large biomolecules at nanometer and sub-nanometer scale. Due to complex architecture and conformational freedom, however, the chemical identification of building blocks of these biopolymers often relies on the presence of markers, extensive simulations, or is not possible at all. Here, we present a molecular probe-sensitisation approach addressing the identification of a specific amino acid within different peptides. A selective intermolecular interaction between the sensitiser attached at the tip-apex and the target amino acid on the surface induces an enhanced tunnelling conductance of one specific spectral feature, which can be mapped in spectroscopic imaging. Density functional theory calculations suggest a mechanism that relies on conformational changes of the sensitiser that are accompanied by local charge redistributions in the tunnelling junction, which, in turn, lower the tunnelling barrier at that specific part of the peptide.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 2.3MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1038/s41467-023-43844-5
Authors
- Publisher:
- Springer Nature
- Journal:
- Nature Communications More from this journal
- Volume:
- 14
- Issue:
- 1
- Article number:
- 8335
- Place of publication:
- England
- Publication date:
- 2023-12-14
- Acceptance date:
- 2023-11-21
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
2041-1723
- Pmid:
-
38097575
- Language:
-
English
- Pubs id:
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1588745
- Local pid:
-
pubs:1588745
- Deposit date:
-
2024-01-17
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Wu et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2023
- Rights statement:
- © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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