Interfacial assembly of protein-polymer nano-conjugates into stimulus-responsive biomimetic protocells

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Abstract

The mechanism of spontaneous assembly of microscale compartments is a central question for the origin of life, and has technological repercussions in diverse areas such as materials science, catalysis, biotechnology and biomedicine. Such compartments need to be semi-permeable, structurally robust and capable of housing assemblages of functional components for internalized chemical transformations. In principle, proteins should be ideal building blocks for the construction of membrane-bound compartments but protein vesicles with cell-like properties are extremely rare. Here we present an approach to the interfacial assembly of protein-based micro-compartments (proteinosomes) that are delineated by a semi-permeable, stimulus-responsive, enzymatically active, elastic membrane consisting of a closely packed monolayer of conjugated protein-polymer building blocks. The proteinosomes can be dispersed in oil or water, thermally cycled to temperatures of 70C, and partially dried and re-inflated without loss of structural integrity. As a consequence, they exhibit protocellular properties such as guest molecule encapsulation, selective permeability, gene-directed protein synthesis and membrane-gated internalized enzyme catalysis. © 2009-2012 IEEE.

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Huang, X., Li, M., Green, D. C., Williams, D. S., Patil, A. J., & Mann, S. (2013). Interfacial assembly of protein-polymer nano-conjugates into stimulus-responsive biomimetic protocells. Nature Communications, 4. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms3239

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