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Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a hereditary bone disorder with various phenotypes ranging from mild multiple fractures to perinatal lethal cases, and it mainly results from the substitution of Gly by a bulkier residue in type I collagen. Triple-helical peptide models of Gly mutations have been widely utilized to decipher the etiology of OI, although these studies are mainly limited to characterizing the peptide features, such as stability and conformation in the solution state. Herein, we have constructed a new series of triple-helical peptides DD(GPO)5 ZPO(GPO)4 DD (Z=Ala, Arg, Asp, Cys, Glu, Ser, and Val) mimicking the most common types of observed OI cases. The inclusion of special terminal aspartic acids enables these collagen mimetic peptides to self-assemble to form nanomaterials upon the trigger of lanthanide ions. We have for the first time systematically evaluated the effect of different OI mutations on the aggregated state of collagen mimetic peptides. We have revealed that the identity of the Gly-substituting residue plays a determinant role in the morphology and secondary structure of the collagen peptide assemblies, showing that bulkier residues tend to result in a disruptive secondary structure and defective morphology, which lead to more severe OI phenotypes. These findings of osteogenesis imperfecta collagen mimetic peptides in the aggregation state provide novel perspectives on the molecular mechanism of osteogenesis imperfecta, and may aid the development of new therapeutic strategies.

In this paper, a ratio-dependent predator–prey model with stage structure and harvesting is investigated. Mathematical analyses of the model equations with regard to boundedness of solutions, nature of equilibria, permanence and stability are performed. By constructing appropriate Lyapunov functions, a set of easily verifiable sufficient conditions are obtained for the global asymptotic stability of nonnegative equilibria of the model. The existence possibilities of bioeconomic equilibria have been examined. An optimal harvesting policy is also given by using Pontryagin's maximal principle. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.