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Hierarchical chirality transfer in the growth of Towel Gourd tendrils.

ABSTRACT: Chirality plays a significant role in the physical properties and biological functions of many biological materials, e.g., climbing tendrils and twisted leaves, which exhibit chiral growth. However, the mechanisms underlying the chiral growth of biological materials remain unclear. In this paper, we investigate how the Towel Gourd tendrils achieve their chiral growth. Our experiments reveal that the tendrils have a hierarchy of chirality, which transfers from the lower levels to the higher. The change in the helical angle of cellulose fibrils at the subcellular level induces an intrinsic torsion of tendrils, leading to the formation of the helical morphology of tendril filaments. A chirality transfer model is presented to elucidate the chiral growth of tendrils. This present study may help understand various chiral phenomena observed in biological materials. It also suggests that chirality transfer can be utilized in the development of hierarchically chiral materials having unique properties.

SUBMITTER: Wang JS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3813933 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Hierarchical chirality transfer in the growth of Towel Gourd tendrils.

Wang Jian-Shan JS Wang Gang G Feng Xi-Qiao XQ Kitamura Takayuki T Kang Yi-Lan YL Yu Shou-Wen SW Qin Qing-Hua QH

Scientific reports 20131031

Chirality plays a significant role in the physical properties and biological functions of many biological materials, e.g., climbing tendrils and twisted leaves, which exhibit chiral growth. However, the mechanisms underlying the chiral growth of biological materials remain unclear. In this paper, we investigate how the Towel Gourd tendrils achieve their chiral growth. Our experiments reveal that the tendrils have a hierarchy of chirality, which transfers from the lower levels to the higher. The ...[more]

PMID: 24173107

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Project description:Transfer of chirality, or transmission of asymmetric information from one system to another, plays an essential role in fundamental biological and chemical processes and, therefore, is essential for life. This phenomenon also holds immense potential in spintronics in the context of chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS). In the CISS, the spatial arrangement of chiral molecules influences the spin state of electrons during the charge-transfer processes. Transfer of chirality from chiral molecules to an achiral material in a hybrid environment enables induction of spin polarization in the achiral material, thus vastly expanding the library of CISS-active electronic materials. Such "induced" CISS signals could have different responses compared to pure chiral molecules because the electronic properties of the achiral material come into play in the former case. In addition, multiple chiral sources can be used, which can have a nontrivial contribution to the induced CISS effect and can act either synergistically or antagonistically. This opens the way to achieving tunability of the CISS signals via chemical means. Earlier, such a chirality-transfer phenomenon and the resulting induced CISS effect were demonstrated in a hybrid system containing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) functionalized with a chiral agent (Fmoc-diphenylalanine l/d). In this context, we extend this result by investigating the role of an additional chiral moiety (l-lysozyme enzyme crystals) in this system. Here, the chiral crystal surrounds the chiral-functionalized CNTs, and we show that synergistic interactions result in more efficient chirality transfer, resulting in nontrivial changes in the CISS effect. This manifests in the form of (a) a stronger CISS signal compared to only one single chiral agent, (b) nonmonotonic temperature dependence and sign reversal of the CISS signal, and (c) persistence of the CISS signal at higher temperatures. Hybrid chiral materials with multiple chiral sources could, therefore, offer intricate control of the CISS signal via modification of its constituents, which is not possible in homogeneous chiral systems with single chiral sources.

Dataset Information

Hierarchical chirality transfer in the growth of Towel Gourd tendrils.

Publications

Hierarchical chirality transfer in the growth of Towel Gourd tendrils.

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