Kinetically trapped self-assembly in synthetic nucleopeptides and nucleotides

Nature uses thermodynamically unfavourable dynamic self-assembly to execute cellular functions frequently. A nucleopeptide and ATP formed a self-assembled hydrogel. The peptide and AMP were unable to form a hydrogel. Notably, when ATP was hydrolyzed to AMP <i>in situ</i> by an ATPase enzyme, the peptide-AMP composition remained a self-assembled hydrogel, showing unusual kinetically trapped self-assembly.