Department of Chemistry, University College London, London WC1H 0AJ, UK.
Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2011 Aug;22(4):485-91. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2011.05.003. Epub 2011 Jun 12.
Multimeric protein assemblies are essential components in viruses, bacteria, eukaryotic cells, and organisms where they act as cytoskeletal scaffold, storage containers, or for directional transport. The bottom-up structures can be exploited in nanobiotechnology by harnessing their built-in properties and combining them with new functional modules. This review summarizes the design principles of natural protein assemblies, highlights recent progress in their structural elucidation, and shows how rational engineering can create new biomaterials for applications in vaccine development, biocatalysis, materials science, and synthetic biology.
多聚体蛋白组装体是病毒、细菌、真核细胞和生物体中的重要组成部分，它们作为细胞骨架支架、储存容器或用于定向运输。通过利用其内在特性并将其与新的功能模块相结合，可以在纳米生物技术中利用这些自下而上的结构。本文综述了天然蛋白组装体的设计原则，重点介绍了其结构阐明方面的最新进展，并展示了如何通过合理的工程设计来创造新的生物材料，应用于疫苗开发、生物催化、材料科学和合成生物学等领域。
