Hyperthin nanochains composed of self-polymerizing protein shackles

Ryo Matsunaga, Saeko Yanaka, Satoru Nagatoishi and Kouhei Tsumoto ()
Additional contact information
Ryo Matsunaga: The Medical Proteomics Laboratory, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo
Saeko Yanaka: The Medical Proteomics Laboratory, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo
Satoru Nagatoishi: The Medical Proteomics Laboratory, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo
Kouhei Tsumoto: The Medical Proteomics Laboratory, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo

Nature Communications, 2013, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Protein fibrils are expected to have applications as functional nanomaterials because of their sophisticated structures; however, nanoscale ordering of the functional units of protein fibrils remains challenging. Here we design a series of self-polymerizing protein monomers, referred to as protein shackles, derived from modified recombinant subunits of pili from Streptococcus pyogenes. The monomers polymerize into nanochains through spontaneous irreversible covalent bond formation. We design the protein shackles so that their reactions can be controlled by altering redox conditions, which affect disulphide bond formation between engineered cysteine residues. The interaction between the monomers improves their polymerization reactivity and determines morphologies of the polymers. In addition, green fluorescent protein-tagged protein shackles can polymerize, indicating proteins can be stably attached to the nanochains with its functionality preserved. Furthermore we demonstrate that a molecular-recognizable nanochain binds to its partner with an enhanced binding ability in solution. These characteristics are expected to be applied for novel protein nanomaterials.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3211 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:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms3211

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

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3211

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 ().