Phosphobisaromatic motifs enable rapid enzymatic self-assembly and hydrogelation of short peptides.

Enzyme-instructed self-assembly (EISA) and hydrogelation is a versatile approach for generating soft materials. Most of the substrates for alkaline phosphatase catalysed EISA utilize phosphotyrosine (pTyr) as the enzymatic trigger for EISA and hydrogelation. Here we show the first example of phosphonaphthyl (pNP) and phosphobiphenyl (pBP) motifs acting as faster enzymatic triggers than phosphotyrosine for EISA and hydrogelation. This work illustrates novel enzyme triggers for rapid enzymatic self-assembly and hydrogelation.