Emergence of Elastic Properties in a Minimalist Resilin‐Derived Heptapeptide upon Bromination (Small 32/2022)

Supramolecular Chemistry In article number 2200807, Pierangelo Metrangolo and co-workers report the emergence of elasticity in a short peptide sequence—SDSYGAP—derived from resilin, upon bromination of the tyrosine residue. Bromine-mediated halogen bonds act as non-covalent crosslinks between nearby peptide strands, favoring the formation of elastic hydrogels in which such crosslinking points limit deformations and contribute to structural recovery of the peptide-network. Cover design by Prof. Umberto Tolino and Mr. Davide Formenti from the Department of Design of Politecnico di Milano, Italy.