Incorporation of DOPA into engineered mussel glue proteins
Thursday, September 18, 2014 - 08:40
in Physics & Chemistry
Mussels can do it, but we haven't been able to: gluing under water. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a team consisting of Korean, Indian, and Canadian scientists has now introduced a new method that makes it possible to synthesize sticky mussel proteins. The key to their success is the "deception" of a bacterial enzyme that makes it possible to incorporate the amino acid DOPA, which is crucial for the adhesive effect.