Reprogramming bacterial protein organelles as a nanoreactor for hydrogen production

Tianpei Li, Qiuyao Jiang, Jiafeng Huang, Catherine M. Aitchison, Fang Huang, Mengru Yang, Gregory F. Dykes, Hai-Lun He, Qiang Wang (), Reiner Sebastian Sprick, Andrew I. Cooper and Lu-Ning Liu ()
Additional contact information
Tianpei Li: University of Liverpool
Qiuyao Jiang: University of Liverpool
Jiafeng Huang: University of Liverpool
Catherine M. Aitchison: University of Liverpool
Fang Huang: University of Liverpool
Mengru Yang: University of Liverpool
Gregory F. Dykes: University of Liverpool
Hai-Lun He: Central South University
Qiang Wang: Henan University
Reiner Sebastian Sprick: University of Liverpool
Andrew I. Cooper: University of Liverpool
Lu-Ning Liu: University of Liverpool

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Compartmentalization is a ubiquitous building principle in cells, which permits segregation of biological elements and reactions. The carboxysome is a specialized bacterial organelle that encapsulates enzymes into a virus-like protein shell and plays essential roles in photosynthetic carbon fixation. The naturally designed architecture, semi-permeability, and catalytic improvement of carboxysomes have inspired rational design and engineering of new nanomaterials to incorporate desired enzymes into the protein shell for enhanced catalytic performance. Here, we build large, intact carboxysome shells (over 90 nm in diameter) in the industrial microorganism Escherichia coli by expressing a set of carboxysome protein-encoding genes. We develop strategies for enzyme activation, shell self-assembly, and cargo encapsulation to construct a robust nanoreactor that incorporates catalytically active [FeFe]-hydrogenases and functional partners within the empty shell for the production of hydrogen. We show that shell encapsulation and the internal microenvironment of the new catalyst facilitate hydrogen production of the encapsulated oxygen-sensitive hydrogenases. The study provides insights into the assembly and formation of carboxysomes and paves the way for engineering carboxysome shell-based nanoreactors to recruit specific enzymes for diverse catalytic reactions.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19280-0 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-19280-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19280-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().