Fig. 4: Microfibre-mediated exchange of chemical contents between droplets to trigger a biocatalytic pathway. | Nature Communications

Fig. 4: Microfibre-mediated exchange of chemical contents between droplets to trigger a biocatalytic pathway.

From: Supramolecular fibrillation of peptide amphiphiles induces environmental responses in aqueous droplets

Fig. 4

a Scheme illustrating the steps involved in content exchange between droplets and resulting enzymatic reactions. The non-emissive Amplex Red precursor (orange dots) is converted into red emissive resorufin (red dots). Note Span 80 has not been drawn for clarity. b, c Fluorescence micrographs before (0 s) and 300 s after the addition of octanal (T8). Experiments carried out in the presence (b) and absence (c) of the aldehyde precursor T8. Scale bars = 70 µm. All experiments contain ThT at 5 µM. d Bulk red emission of emulsions containing both droplet populations, either in the presence (red) or absence (black) of T8, corresponding to a fibrillating and non-fibrillating system, respectively. The red profile shows a control sample with both droplet populations loaded with PC2, whose product PC2T8 is unable to self-assemble into fibres36; n = 3 (mean ± SD).

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