Tripeptide self-assembled hydrogels: unexpected twists of chirality

Change of chirality of the first N-terminal amino acid of tripeptides VFF and FFV from L to D results in self-assembled hydrogels at physiological pH from non-assembling L-analogues. Interestingly, changing the chirality of F yields very different nanostructures; nanotapes are observed for (VFF)-V-D, twisted fibers for (FFV)-F-D.