Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
Wiley Interdiscip Rev Nanomed Nanobiotechnol. 2014 Mar-Apr;6(2):163-77. doi: 10.1002/wnan.1252. Epub 2013 Dec 11.
Biomolecular motors are a unique class of intracellular proteins that are fundamental to a considerable number of physiological functions such as DNA replication, organelle trafficking, and cell division. The efficient transformation of chemical energy into useful work by these proteins provides strong motivation for their utilization as nanoscale actuators in ex vivo, meso- and macro-scale hybrid systems. Biomolecular motors involved in cytoskeletal transport are quite attractive models within this context due to their ability to direct the transport of nano-/micro-scale objects at rates significantly greater than diffusion, and in the absence of bulk fluid flow. As in living organisms, biomolecular motors involved in cytoskeletal transport (i.e., kinesin, dynein, and myosin) function outside of their native environment to dissipatively self-assemble biological, biomimetic, and hybrid nanostructures that exhibit nonequilibrium behaviors such as self-healing. These systems also provide nanofluidic transport function in hybrid nanodevices where target analytes are actively captured, sorted, and transported for autonomous sensing and analytical applications. Moving forward, the implementation of biomolecular motors will continue to enable a wide range of unique functionalities that are presently limited to living systems, and support the development of nanoscale systems for addressing critical engineering challenges.
生物分子马达是一类独特的细胞内蛋白质，它们对许多生理功能至关重要，如 DNA 复制、细胞器运输和细胞分裂。这些蛋白质将化学能高效转化为有用的功，这为它们在体外、中尺度和大尺度混合系统中作为纳米级执行器的应用提供了强大的动力。在这种情况下，参与细胞骨架运输的生物分子马达是非常有吸引力的模型，因为它们能够以显著高于扩散的速率引导纳米/微米尺度物体的运输，而不需要体相流体流动。与活生物体中的情况一样，参与细胞骨架运输的生物分子马达（即驱动蛋白、动力蛋白和肌球蛋白）在其天然环境之外发挥作用，以耗散的方式自组装生物、仿生和混合纳米结构，表现出非平衡行为，如自修复。这些系统还在混合纳米器件中提供纳米流控传输功能，其中目标分析物被主动捕获、分类和运输，用于自主传感和分析应用。展望未来，生物分子马达的应用将继续实现目前仅限于活系统的广泛独特功能，并支持开发纳米尺度系统以解决关键工程挑战。
