Secretion and Self-Assembly of Protein-Protein Conjugates from Bacillus Subtilis | AIChE

Secretion and Self-Assembly of Protein-Protein Conjugates from Bacillus Subtilis

Authors 

Gilbert, C. - Presenter, Imperial College London
Ellis, T., Imperial College London

The design and construction of biological materials is a burgeoning field that promises to deliver novel nanostructures and polymers for diverse applications. Proteins have attracted considerable interest as substrates for biomaterial synthesis owing to their potential to bring together both favourable structural and functional biological properties. Using tools and techniques from synthetic biology, it is hoped that functional protein modules (e.g. catalytic activity, elasticity, mechanical strength) can be recombined to create novel biomaterials tailor-made for diverse applications. Further, through the use of genetic circuits complex polymer architectures can be pre-programmed into cells. We aim to develop a cell-based co-culture system for protein polymerisation, in which secreted recombinant protein monomers assemble into protein polymers and nanostructures outside the cell. Here we describe a method for the secretion and conjugation of various recombinant proteins from the Gram positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis. In addition, we show the applicability of this technology to the creation of thermo-tolerant enzymes and for the self-assembly of multi-enzyme complexes.