Biofouling, the undesirable accumulation of organisms onto surfaces, affects many areas including health, water, and energy. We previously designed a tripeptide that self‐assembles into a coating that prevents biofouling. The peptide comprises three amino acids: DOPA, which allows its adhesion to the surface, and two fluorinated phenylalanine residues that direct its self‐assembly into a coating and acquire it with antifouling properties. This short peptide has an ester group at its C‐terminus. To examine the importance of this end group for the self‐assembly and antifouling properties of the peptide, we synthesized and characterized tripeptides with different end groups (ester, amide, or carboxylic group). Our results indicate that different groups at the C‐terminus of the peptide can lead to a change in the peptide assembly on the surface and its adsorption process. However, this change only affects the antifouling properties of the coating toward Gram‐positive bacteria (Staphylococcus epidermidis), whereas Gram‐negative bacteria (Escherichia coli) are not affected.

中文翻译：

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端基取代对肽表面自组装的影响。

生物污垢是有机物在表面上的不良积聚，影响着许多领域，包括健康，水和能源。我们之前设计了一种三肽，可自组装成可防止生物积垢的涂层。该肽包含三个氨基酸：DOPA（可使其粘附在表面上）和两个氟化苯丙氨酸残基，可将其自组装成涂层并具有防污性能。这种短肽在其C端具有一个酯基。为了检查该端基对肽的自组装和防污性能的重要性，我们合成并表征了具有不同端基（酯，酰胺或羧基）的三肽。我们的结果表明，在肽的C末端存在不同的基团，可以导致表面上的肽装配及其吸附过程发生变化。但是，这种变化只会影响涂层对革兰氏阳性细菌的防污性能（表皮葡萄球菌），而革兰氏阴性细菌（大肠杆菌）不受影响。