上海交通大学夏小霞团队报道了通过蜘蛛蛋白模板在大肠杆菌中空间定向生物合成量子点。相关研究成果发表在2022年10月17日出版的《德国应用化学》。

由于模板生物分子和前体的分散特性，量子点（QDs）的空间定向合成在生物体中是有趣但具有挑战性的。该合成能否通过生物分子聚合(细胞中一种新型的无膜隔室类型)来完成尚不清楚。

该文中，研究人员报道了用于在大肠杆菌中模板化合成QDs的合成蛋白聚合物。这是通过过度表达蜘蛛丝蛋白来结合前体离子和吸收其他必要的组分来实现的，从而诱导蜘蛛丝蛋白形成更多的β-片状结构，用于蛋白质聚合物的组装和成熟。这反过来使得荧光QDs的形成和共定位能够“点亮”冷凝物，并减轻前体重金属离子和生成的QDs的细胞毒性。因此，研究结果为纳米结构的合成和沉积提供了一种新的策略，具有巨大的原位应用潜力。

附：英文原文

Title: Spatially Directed Biosynthesis of Quantum Dots via Spidroin Templating in Escherichia coli

Author: Meng-Ting Chen, Chun-Fei Hu, Hai-Bo Huang, Zhi-Gang Qian, Xiao-Xia Xia

Issue&Volume: 2022-10-17

Abstract: Spatially directed synthesis of quantum dots (QDs) is intriguing yet challenging in organisms, due to the dispersed feature of templating biomolecules and precursors. Whether this task could be accomplished by biomolecular condensates, an emerging type of membraneless compartments in cells remains unknown. Here we report synthetic protein condensates for templated synthesis of QDs in bacterium Escherichia coli. This was realized by overexpression of spider silk protein to bind precursor ions and recruit other necessary components, which induced the spidroin to form more β-sheet structures for assembly and maturation of the protein condensates. This in turn enabled formation and co-localization of the fluorescent QDs to “light up” the condensates, and alleviated cytotoxicity of the precursor heavy metal ions and resulting QDs. Thus, our results suggest a new strategy for nanostructure synthesis and deposition in subcellular compartments with great potential for in situ applications.

DOI: 10.1002/anie.202214177

Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.202214177