Diatom-inspired multiscale mineralization of patterned protein–polysaccharide complex structures |
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| Authors: | Ke Li Yingfeng Li Xinyu Wang Mengkui Cui Bolin An Jiahua Pu Jintao Liu Boyang Zhang Guijun Ma Chao Zhong |
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| Institution: | School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China;Center for Materials Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China;CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China |
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| Abstract: | Marine diatoms construct their hierarchically ordered, three-dimensional (3D) external structures called frustules through precise biomineralization processes. Recapitulating the remarkable architectures and functions of diatom frustules in artificial materials is a major challenge that has important technological implications for hierarchically ordered composites. Here, we report the construction of highly ordered, mineralized composites based on fabrication of complex self-supporting porous structures—made of genetically engineered amyloid fusion proteins and the natural polysaccharide chitin—and performing in situ multiscale protein-mediated mineralization with diverse inorganic materials, including SiO2, TiO2 and Ga2O3. Subsequently, using sugar cubes as templates, we demonstrate that 3D fabricated porous structures can become colonized by engineered bacteria and can be functionalized with highly photoreactive minerals, thereby enabling co-localization of the photocatalytic units with a bacteria-based hydrogenase reaction for a successful semi-solid artificial photosynthesis system for hydrogen evolution. Our study thus highlights the power of coupling genetically engineered proteins and polysaccharides with biofabrication techniques to generate hierarchically organized mineralized porous structures inspired by nature. |
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| Keywords: | biomimetic mineralization patterned porous structure genetic engineering amyloid protein artificial photosynthesis |
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