 anisotropy 
 or alignment is a critical feature of functional soft 
 materials in living organisms , but it remains a challenge for spontaneously 
 generating anisotropic gel materials . 
 here we report a molecular design 
 that increases intermolecular aromatic  aromatic interactions 
 of hydrogelators during enzymatic hydrogelation for spontaneously 
 forming an anisotropic hydrogel . 
 this process , relying on both aromatic  
 aromatic 
 interactions and enzyme catalysis , results in spontaneously aligned 
 supramolecular nanofibers as the matrices of a monodomain hydrogel 
 that exhibits significant birefringence . this work , as the first example 
 of monodomain hydrogels formed via an enzymatic reaction , illustrates 
 a new biomimetic approach for generating aligned anisotropic soft 
 materials . 
Supplementary Material