Designed rational assembly of proteins
promises novel properties and functionalities as well as new insights
into the nature of life. <i>De novo</i> design of artificial
protein nanostructures has been achieved using protein subunits or
peptides as building blocks. However, controlled assembly of protein
nanostructures into higher-order discrete nanoarchitectures, rather
than infinite arrays or aggregates, remains a challenge due to the
complex or symmetric surface chemistry of protein nanostructures.
Here we develop a facile strategy to control the hierarchical assembly
of protein nanocages into discrete nanoarchitectures with gold nanoparticles
(AuNPs) as scaffolds via rationally designing their interfacial interaction.
The protein nanocage is monofunctionalized with a polyhistidine tag
(Histag) on the external surface through a mixed assembly strategy,
while AuNPs are modified with Ni<sup>2+</sup>−NTA chelates,
so that the protein nanocage can controllably assemble onto the AuNPs
via the Histag−Ni<sup>2+</sup> affinity. Discrete protein nanoarchitectures
with tunable composition can be generated by stoichiometric control
over the ratio of protein nanocage to AuNP or change of AuNP size.
The methodology described here is extendable to other protein nanostructures
and chemically synthesized nanomaterials, and can be borrowed by synthetic
biology for biomacromolecule manipulation