Acceleration of soy protein amyloid fibrils formation: Homologous seeding mechanism.

Adding prefabricated seeds to the fibril formation solution can accelerate the process of fibrillation. Various variants of soy protein amyloid fibrils (SAFs) (oligomers, short fibrils, long fibrils and mature long fibrils) were employed as seeds (OL, SF, LF and MLF). These fibrils were then introduced into a solution using a homologous seeding approach. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of various aspects, including morphological characteristics, surface hydrophobicity, secondary structures, fibril conversion rate and rheological properties. The results indicated that the addition of seeds, particularly those composed of longer and more mature fibrils, played a pivotal role in accelerating the formation of rigid and extended fibrils. Mature long fibrils as seeds can shorten the formation time of long fibrils (fibril length ≥ 600 nm) from 12 to 3 h. The seeding significantly shortens the formation time of SAFs, meanwhile, this study provides insights into the intricate dynamics of amyloid fibril at homologous seeding.