Engineering of protein crystals for development of bionanomaterials

Abstract

Protein crystals are formed with highly ordered packing of protein monomers, which can form assemblies with supramolecular networks. The typical alignment of amino acid residues in the solid state of the assembly structures enables the formation of different environments with specific lattices. Engineering crystalline protein assemblies has been demonstrated as a promising method for developing materials with discrete properties, structures and functional features. Protein crystals engineered with modification provided by specific site mutations, metal conjugation and generation of disulfide bonds have contributed to the construction of various composites. This article provides a review of progress in efforts to engineer in vitro and in vivo protein crystals with the objective of developing bionanomaterials for applications in bioscience and biotechnology.