Tyrosine residues initiated photopolymerization in living organisms

Mei Zhu, Shengliang Wang, Zhenhui Li, Junbo Li, Zhijun Xu, Xiaoman Liu () and Xin Huang ()
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Mei Zhu: Harbin Institute of Technology
Shengliang Wang: Harbin Institute of Technology
Zhenhui Li: Harbin Institute of Technology
Junbo Li: Harbin Institute of Technology
Zhijun Xu: Harbin Institute of Technology
Xiaoman Liu: Harbin Institute of Technology
Xin Huang: Harbin Institute of Technology

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Towards intracellular engineering of living organisms, the development of new biocompatible polymerization system applicable for an intrinsically non-natural macromolecules synthesis for modulating living organism function/behavior is a key step. Herein, we find that the tyrosine residues in the cofactor-free proteins can be employed to mediate controlled radical polymerization under 405 nm light. A proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) mechanism between the excited-state TyrOH* residue in proteins and the monomer or the chain transfer agent is confirmed. By using Tyr-containing proteins, a wide range of well-defined polymers are successfully generated. Especially, the developed photopolymerization system shows good biocompatibility, which can achieve in-situ extracellular polymerization from the surface of yeast cells for agglutination/anti-agglutination functional manipulation or intracellular polymerization inside yeast cells, respectively. Besides providing a universal aqueous photopolymerization system, this study should contribute a new way to generate various non-natural polymers in vitro or in vivo to engineer living organism functions and behaviours.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39286-8

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