| Abstract: | We have investigated an abiotic secondary structure based on the stacking of alternating electron‐rich (1,5‐dialkoxynaphthalene (Dan)) and electron‐deficient (1,4,5,8‐naphthalene‐tetracarboxylic diimide (Ndi)=benzolmn]3,8]phenanthroline‐1,3,6,8(2H,7H)‐tetrone) aromatic units. Previously, the specifics of conformational behavior were uncovered in the minimal folding unit, namely the dimer, consisting of one Dan and one Ndi unit linked through various amino acid residues. Here is reported the investigation of a series of larger oligomers (trimers and tetramers) composed of selected dimer units. We determined that some of the larger oligomers displayed conformational modularity, that is, the persistence of subunit‐conformational propensities when those subunits were used as components of larger structures. Conformational modularity can be viewed as a desirable property of folding molecules because it simplifies not only the design of larger, more complex oligomers, but also the structural analyses of such species. |
