Ferric complexes of triscatechol siderophores may assume one of two enantiomeric configurations at the iron site. Chirality is known to be important in the iron uptake process, however an understanding of the molecular features directing stereospecific coordination remains ambiguous. Synthesis of the full suite of (DHB^L/DLys^L/DSer)₃ macrolactone diastereomers, which includes the siderophore cyclic trichrysobactin (CTC), enables the effects that the chirality of Lys and Ser residues exert on the configuration of the Fe(iii) complex to be defined. Computationally optimized geometries indicate that the Λ/Δ configurational preferences are set by steric interactions between the Lys sidechains and the peptide backbone. The ability of each (DHB^L/DLys^L/DSer)₃ diastereomer to form a stable Fe(iii) complex prompted a genomic search for biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) encoding the synthesis of these diastereomers in microbes. The genome of the plant pathogen Dickeya chrysanthemi EC16 was sequenced and the genes responsible for the biosynthesis of CTC were identified. A related but distinct BGC was identified in the genome of the opportunistic pathogen Yersinia frederiksenii ATCC 33641; isolation of the siderophore from Y. frederiksenii ATCC 33641, named frederiksenibactin (FSB), revealed the triscatechol oligoester, linear-(DHB^LLys^LSer)₃. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy establishes that Fe(iii)-CTC and Fe(iii)-FSB are formed in opposite enantiomeric configuration, consistent with the results of the ferric complexes of the cyclic (DHB^L/DLys^L/DSer)₃ diastereomers.

The need for improved wet adhesives has driven research on mussel-inspired materials incorporating dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) and related analogs of the parent catechol, but their susceptibility to oxidation limits practical application of these functionalities. Here, we investigate the molecular-level adhesion of the catechol analogs dihydroxybenzamide (DHB) and hydroxypyridinone (HOPO) as a function of pH. We find that the molecular structure of the catechol analogs influences their susceptibility to oxidation in alkaline conditions, with HOPO emerging as a particularly promising candidate for pH-tolerant adhesives for diverse environmental conditions.

Marine mussels secrete proteins rich in residues containing catechols and cationic amines that displace hydration layers and adhere to charged surfaces under water via a cooperative binding effect known as catechol-cation synergy. Mussel-inspired adhesives containing paired catechol and cationic functionalities are a promising class of materials for biomedical applications, but few studies address the molecular adhesion mechanism(s) of these materials. To determine whether intramolecular adjacency of these functionalities is necessary for robust adhesion, a suite of siderophore analog surface primers was synthesized with systematic variations in intramolecular spacing between catechol and cationic functionalities. Adhesion measurements conducted with a surface forces apparatus (SFA) allow adhesive failure to be distinguished from cohesive failure and show that the failure mode depends critically on the siderophore analog adsorption density. The adhesion of these molecules to muscovite mica in an aqueous electrolyte solution demonstrates that direct intramolecular adjacency of catechol and cationic functionalities is not necessary for synergistic binding. However, we show that increasing the catechol-cation spacing by incorporating nonbinding domains results in decreased adhesion, which we attribute to a decrease in the density of catechol functionalities. A mechanism for catechol-cation synergy is proposed based on electrostatically driven adsorption and subsequent binding of catechol functionalities. This work should guide the design of new adhesives for binding to charged surfaces in saline environments.