Self-Sorting Collagen Heterotrimers

Nature uses elaborate methods to control protein assembly, including that of heterotrimeric collagen. Here, we established design principles for the composition and register-selective assembly of synthetic collagen heterotrimers. The assembly code enabled the self-sorting of eight different strands into three-out of 512 possible-triple helices via complementary (4S)-aminoproline and aspartate residues. Native ESI-MS corroborated the specific assembly into coexisting heterotrimers.