Fig. 2: Supramolecular assembly of artificial fibrillators within coacervates.

i Mechanism of multiphase peptide fibrillation: a free peptides (red traces) in solution, b, c metastable peptide coacervates (red circles) nucleate and grow, d confined peptide begins to form fibres (blue), which can grow beyond the particle’s boundaries (e, f) fibres can propagate by consuming peptide monomers from the coacervate phase, g particles start to dissolve at low free peptide concentration, and h the fibres become the only species in the system at poor solubility conditions. Reprinted with permission from American Chemical Society⁵⁵. Copyright 2017 American Chemical Society. ii Artificial three-component complex coacervate with confined fibrillation: A molecular components and B compositional control of the resulting assemblies. Reprinted with permission from American Chemical Society⁵⁹. Copyright 2022 American Chemical Society. iii Structural transition from a PDDA/Fmoc-D-Ala-D-Ala droplet to an aster-like structure upon addition of GDL. Fluorescence microscopy images at t = 0 min (a) and t = 10 min (b) labelled with Hoechst 33258. Scale bar = 10 μm. AFM images of a droplet 3 h after the addition of GDL with (c) and without (e) a coacervate core. Scale bar = 2 μm. d Confocal fluorescence microscopy of a matured aster-like structure, where the polymer and the peptide show red and blue emission, respectively. Scale bar = 16 μm. Reproduced from with permission from the Royal Society of Chemistry⁶¹.