Electronic Supplementary Information Synthesis of the PSD95-PDZ3 domain gene The gene coding for residues 309-401 corresponding to the third PDZ domain (PDZ3) of the Rattus norvegicus post synaptic density 95 protein (PSD-95) 1-2 flanked between AgeI and KpnI restriction sites ( Figure S1 ) was synthesized and inserted into a pMK cloning vector by GeneArt. The PDZ3 gene was designed to include an ochre stop codon before the KpnI site for expression purposes. The PDZ3 gene was removed from the

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... K vector using an NdeI site upstream from the PDZ3 gene and the KpnI site and inserted into a pET17b plasmid (Novagen), yielding pETPDZ3. A second AgeI site within the structural gene of PDZ3 ( Figure S1 ) was removed from pETPDZ3 by making a G322G silent mutation (ACCGGT to ACCGGC) using the G322G-primers (Table S2) and Quick-Change site-directed mutagenesis methods (Stratagene). The resulting vector, pETPDZ3-1, contained the PDZ3 structural gene flanked between unique AgeI and KpnI sites. Figure S1 . 5'-3' DNA sequence of the Rattus norvegicus PSD95-PDZ3 gene synthesized and contained in a pMK-cloning vector. Each codon of the gene contains the coding amino acid above, and the amino acid numbering (309-401) of PDZ3 in PSD95 is listed to the right. The restriction sites used or modified for this study are shown. Construction of expression vectors. The pBTR(hCc) 3 plasmid ( Figure S2A ) coding for horse heart cytochrome c (cyt c) and yeast heme lyase (CCHL) ( Figure S2B ) was a gift from Prof. Gary J. Pielak (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill). A lac promoter upstream of the gene cluster controls the expression of both cyt c and CCHL, and a gene coding β-lactamase for ampicillin resistance (Amp r ) is used for bacterial colony selection. Electronic Supplementary Material (ESI) for Chemical Communications This journal is