Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, 208 Muller Lab, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2011 Apr;90(1):1-10. doi: 10.1007/s00253-011-3140-7. Epub 2011 Feb 16.
With the emergences of engineered devices at microscale and nanoscale dimensions, there is a growing need for controlled actuation and transport at these length scales. The kinesin-microtubule system provides a highly evolved biological transport system well suited for these tasks. Accordingly, there is an ongoing effort to create hybrid nanodevices that integrate biological components with engineered materials for applications such as biological separations, nanoscale assembly, and sensing. Adopting microtubules for these applications generally requires covalent attachment of biotin, fluorophores, or other biomolecules to tubulin enable surface or cargo attachment, or visualization. This review summarizes different strategies for functionalizing microtubules for application-focused as well as basic biological research. These functionalization strategies must maintain the integrity of microtubule proteins so that they do not depolymerize and can be transported by kinesin motors, while adding utility such as the ability to reversibly bind cargo. The relevant biochemical and electrical properties of microtubules are discussed, as well as strategies for microtubule stabilization and long-term storage. Next, attachment strategies, such as antibodies and DNA hybridization that have proven useful to date, are discussed in the context of ongoing hybrid nanodevice research. The review concludes with a discussion of less explored opportunities, such as harnessing the utility of tubulin posttranslational modifications and the use of recombinant tubulin that may enable future progress in nanodevice development.
随着微尺度和纳米尺度工程设备的出现，人们对这些长度尺度的控制驱动和传输的需求日益增长。驱动蛋白-微管系统提供了一种高度进化的生物传输系统，非常适合这些任务。因此，人们正在努力创建将生物成分与工程材料集成在一起的混合纳米器件，用于生物分离、纳米级组装和传感等应用。将微管应用于这些应用通常需要将生物素、荧光团或其他生物分子共价连接到微管蛋白上，以实现表面或货物的附着或可视化。这篇综述总结了不同的功能化微管的策略，这些策略针对应用导向和基础生物学研究。这些功能化策略必须保持微管蛋白的完整性，使它们不发生解聚，并能被驱动蛋白马达运输，同时增加如可逆结合货物的功能。讨论了微管的相关生化和电学性质，以及微管的稳定和长期储存策略。接下来，在正在进行的混合纳米器件研究的背景下，讨论了抗体和 DNA 杂交等已被证明有用的附着策略。最后，讨论了较少探索的机会，例如利用微管的翻译后修饰和使用重组微管，这可能会推动纳米器件开发的未来进展。
