Exploring the effect of native and artificial peptide modifications on silaffin induced silica precipitation

Silaffins are peptides naturally occurring in diatoms that carry a remarkable number of posttranslational modifications. They are intimately involved in the biomineralisation process leading to the delicate nano-patterned silica shells of diatoms. Here we describe the synthesis of silaffin peptides derived from Cylindrotheca fusiformis that carry defined modifications based on naturally occurring posttranslational modifications. Their silicification activity was analysed with regard to structure and amount of precipitated silica, revealing a distinct alteration of silica precipitation activity and structure of the precipitate formed depending on the particular modifications of the silaffins.