text: Silica precipitation by synthetic minicollagens.
  Oligomeric Pro-Hyp-Gly- (POG-) peptides, wherein the collagenous triple helix is supported by C-terminal capping, exhibit silica precipitation properties (O, Hyp = (2S,4R)hydroxyproline). As quantified by a molybdate assay, the length of the covalently tethered triple helix (number of POG units) determines the amount of amorphous silica obtained from silicic acid solution. Although lacking charged side chains, the synthetic collagens precipitate large quantities of silicic acid resulting in micrometer-sized spheres of varying surface morphologies as analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. Similar precipitation efficiencies on a fast time scale of less than 10 min were previously described only for biogenic diatom proteins and sponge collagen, respectively, which have a considerably higher structural complexity and limited accessibility. The minicollagens described here provide an unexpected alternative to the widely used precipitation conditions, which generally depend on (poly-)amines in phosphate buffer. Collagen can form intimate connections with inorganic matter. Hence, silica-enclosed collagens have promising perspectives as composite materials.
entities.id: T10 T11 T12 T13 T14 T15 T16 T17 T18 T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8 T9
entities.type: CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL GENE-N GENE-N GENE-N GENE-N GENE-N GENE-N CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL
entities.text: C (poly-)amines Silica Collagen collagens triple helix collagens collagenous triple helix sponge collagen phosphate silica Pro-Hyp-Gly silica Hyp (2S,4R)hydroxyproline silica silicic acid silicic acid