File:MirrorImagePhageDisplay.png

English: This image will appear in the wikipedia peptidomimetics page. Figure 3. Mirror image phage display. (A) A target L-amino acid protein (L-protein) for which an L-peptide inhibitor might be available is selected. The D-enantiomer protein (D-protein) is chemically synthesized from the same sequence using D-amino acids. If the target L-protein does not require a chaperone or co-factor to fold, the D-protein will mirror the conformation and properties of the L-protein, but the L-peptide inhibitor will most likely have little binding affinity towards it. (B) The synthesized D-proteins are fixed to a surface and exposed to phage displaying many different L-peptides. (C) L-peptides that do not bind well to the surface are washed away. The remaining L-peptides are sequenced. (D) The D-enantiomer peptides (D-peptides) of the binding L-peptides are synthesized using the same sequence and tested against the L-proteins. The D-peptide will bind the L-protein but most likely not bind the D-protein mirror.