Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Greater Bay Biomedical InnoCenter, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518036, China.
Sci Adv. 2022 Nov 4;8(44):eade0073. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ade0073.
Engineered living materials (ELMs) are gaining traction among synthetic biologists, as their emergent properties and nonequilibrium thermodynamics make them markedly different from traditional materials. However, the aspiration to directly use living cells as building blocks to create higher-order structures or materials, with no need for chemical modification, remains elusive to synthetic biologists. Here, we report a strategy that enables the assembly of engineered into self-propagating ELMs via ultrahigh-affinity protein/protein interactions. These yeast cells have been genetically engineered to display the protein pairs SpyTag/SpyCatcher or CL7/Im7 on their surfaces, which enable their assembly into multicellular structures capable of further growth and proliferation. The assembly process can be controlled precisely via optical tweezers or microfluidics. Moreover, incorporation of functional motifs such as super uranyl-binding protein and mussel foot proteins via genetic programming rendered these materials suitable for uranium extraction from seawater and bioadhesion, respectively, pointing to their potential in chemical separation and biomedical applications.
工程化活体材料（ELMs）在合成生物学家中受到关注，因为它们的涌现特性和非平衡热力学使它们与传统材料明显不同。然而，合成生物学家仍然难以实现将活细胞直接用作构建块来创建更高阶结构或材料，而无需进行化学修饰。在这里，我们报告了一种策略，通过超高亲和力的蛋白质/蛋白质相互作用，使工程化的活体能够自传播 ELMs。这些酵母细胞经过基因工程改造，使其表面展示 SpyTag/SpyCatcher 或 CL7/Im7 蛋白对，从而能够组装成具有进一步生长和增殖能力的多细胞结构。通过光镊或微流控技术可以精确控制组装过程。此外，通过遗传编程将功能基序（如超强铀结合蛋白和贻贝脚蛋白）纳入其中，使这些材料分别适用于从海水中提取铀和生物黏附，这表明它们在化学分离和生物医学应用方面具有潜力。
