Structure Formation in Class I and Class II Hydrophobins at the Air-Water Interface under Multiple Compression/Expansion Cycles.

Hydrophobins are small amphiphilic fungal proteins empirically divided into two classes. We investigated the self-assembled structures of class I SC3 from and class II HFBII from transferred to mica from the air-water interface by using the Langmuir-Schaefer (LS) technique and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The main focus is the influence of areal constraint and multiple compressions and expansions on the morphology of the protein films.