Decorating the Outer Surface of Microbially Produced Protein Nanowires with Peptides.
Toshiyuki UekiDavid J F WalkerPier-Luc TremblayKelly P NevinJoy E WardTrevor L WoodardStephen S NonnenmannDerek R LovleyPublished in: ACS synthetic biology (2019)
The potential applications of electrically conductive protein nanowires (e-PNs) harvested from Geobacter sulfurreducens might be greatly expanded if the outer surface of the wires could be modified to confer novel sensing capabilities or to enhance binding to other materials. We developed a simple strategy for functionalizing e-PNs with surface-exposed peptides. The G. sulfurreducens gene for the monomer that assembles into e-PNs was modified to add peptide tags at the carboxyl terminus of the monomer. Strains of G. sulfurreducens were constructed that fabricated synthetic e-PNs with a six-histidine "His-tag" or both the His-tag and a nine-peptide "HA-tag" exposed on the outer surface. Addition of the peptide tags did not diminish e-PN conductivity. The abundance of HA-tag in e-PNs was controlled by placing expression of the gene for the synthetic monomer with the HA-tag under transcriptional regulation. These studies suggest broad possibilities for tailoring e-PN properties for diverse applications.
Keyphrases
- amino acid
- reduced graphene oxide
- genome wide
- binding protein
- molecularly imprinted
- escherichia coli
- protein protein
- room temperature
- wastewater treatment
- small molecule
- gene expression
- risk assessment
- climate change
- dna methylation
- high resolution
- transcription factor
- long non coding rna
- human health
- tissue engineering