1 research outputs found
Crystal Engineering of Self-Assembled Porous Protein Materials in Living Cells
Crystalline
porous materials have been investigated for development
of important applications in molecular storage, separations, and catalysis.
The potential of protein crystals is increasing as they become better
understood. Protein crystals have been regarded as porous materials
because they present highly ordered 3D arrangements of protein molecules
with high porosity and wide range of pore sizes. However, it remains
difficult to functionalize protein crystals in living cells. Here,
we report that polyhedra, a natural crystalline protein assembly of
polyhedrin monomer (PhM) produced in insect cells infected by cypovirus,
can be engineered to extend porous networks by deleting selected amino
acid residues located on the intermolecular contact region of PhM.
The adsorption rates and quantities of fluorescent dyes stored within
the mutant crystals are increased relative to those of the wild-type
polyhedra crystal (WTPhC) under both <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i> conditions. These results provide a strategy for
designing self-assembled protein materials with applications in molecular
recognition and storage of exogenous substances in living cell as
well as an entry point for development of bioorthogonal chemistry
and <i>in vivo</i> crystal structure analysis