Supramolecular binding of cationic porphyrins on a filamentous bacteriophage template: toward a noncovalent antenna system.

Engineered viruses act as scaffolds to bind porphyrins on their surfaces, exploiting mainly electrostatic interactions. The close proximity between porphyrins and tryptophan residues, exposed on the solvent-accessible surface, leads to an efficient resonant energy transfer, which makes these systems suitable for developing noncovalent antenna systems.