Local Mechanical Perturbation Provides an Effective Means to Regulate the Growth and Assembly of Functional Peptide Fibrils.

Mucin 1 (MUC1) peptide fused with Q11 (MUC1-Q11) having 35 residues has previously been shown to form amyloid fibrils. Using time-dependent and high-resolution atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging, it is revealed that the formation of individual MUC1-Q11 fibrils entails nucleation and extension at both ends. This process can be altered by local mechanical perturbations using AFM probes.