Engineering Geobacter pili to produce metal:organic filaments

The organized self-assembly of conductive biological structures holds promise for creating new bioelectronic devices. In particular, Geobacter sulfurreducens type IVa pili have proven to be a versatile material for fabricating protein nanowire-based devices. To scale the production of conductive pil...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biosensors & bioelectronics 2023-02, Vol.222, p.114993-114993, Article 114993
Main Authors: Szmuc, Eric, Walker, David J.F., Kireev, Dmitry, Akinwande, Deji, Lovley, Derek R., Keitz, Benjamin, Ellington, Andrew
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bioelectronics
Bioengineering
Biohybrid
Biosensing Techniques
Electron Transport
Fimbriae, Bacterial - metabolism
Geobacter
Gold
Metal Nanoparticles
Metal:organic
Pili
Self-assembly
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Summary:The organized self-assembly of conductive biological structures holds promise for creating new bioelectronic devices. In particular, Geobacter sulfurreducens type IVa pili have proven to be a versatile material for fabricating protein nanowire-based devices. To scale the production of conductive pili, we designed a strain of Shewanella oneidensis that heterologously expressed abundant, conductive Geobacter pili when grown aerobically in liquid culture. S. oneidensis expressing a cysteine-modified pilin, designed to enhance the capability to bind to gold, generated conductive pili that self-assembled into biohybrid filaments in the presence of gold nanoparticles. Elemental composition analysis confirmed the filament-metal interactions within the structures, which were several orders of magnitude larger than previously described metal:organic filaments. The results demonstrate that the S. oneidensis chassis significantly advances the possibilities for facile conductive protein nanowire design and fabrication. •Genetically engineered inducible control of conductive pili in Shewanella oneidensis.•Increased quantities of conductive pili produced for scaling electrical biodevices.•Elemental analysis shows gold particle association with pili for filaments assembly.•Engineered tunable self-assembly of metal:organic supramolecular structures.
ISSN:0956-5663
1873-4235
DOI:10.1016/j.bios.2022.114993