Micelle-induced self-assembling protein nanowires: Versatile supramolecular scaffolds for designing the light-harvesting system

Organic nanoparticle induced self-assembly of proteins with periodic nanostructures is a promising and burgeoning strategy to develop functional biomimetic nanomaterials. Cricoid proteins afford monodispersed and well-defined hollow centers, and can be used to multivalently interact with geometrically symmetric nanoparticles to form one-dimensional protein nanoarrays. Herein, we report that core-cross-linked micelles can direct cricoid stable protein one (SP1) to self-assembling nanowires through multiple electrostatic interactions. One micelle can act as an organic nanoparticle to interact with two central concaves of SP1 in an opposite orientation to form a sandwich structure, further controlling the assembly direction to supramolecular protein nanowires. The reported versatile supramolecular scaffolds can be optionally manipulated to develop multifunctional integrated or synergistic biomimetic nanomaterials. Artificial light-harvesting nanowires are further developed to mimic the energy transfer process of photosynthetic bacteria for their structural similarity, by means of labeling donor and acceptor chromophores to SP1 rings and spherical micelles, respectively. The absorbing energy can be transferred within the adjacent donors around the ring and shuttling the collected energy to the nearby acceptor chromophore. The artificial light-harvesting nanowires are designed by mimicking the structural characteristic of natural LH-2 complex, which are meaningful in exploring the photosynthesis process in vitro.

有机纳米颗粒诱导具有周期性纳米结构的蛋白质自组装是开发功能仿生纳米材料的一种有前途且新兴的策略。环状蛋白提供单分散且轮廓明确的空心中心，可用于与几何对称纳米颗粒多价相互作用，形成一维蛋白质纳米阵列。在此，我们报告核心交联胶束可以通过多重静电相互作用将环状稳定蛋白一（SP1）引导至自组装纳米线。一个胶束可以作为有机纳米粒子与SP1的两个中心凹面以相反方向相互作用，形成三明治结构，进一步控制超分子蛋白质纳米线的组装方向。所报道的多功能超分子支架可以选择性地进行操作以开发多功能集成或协同仿生纳米材料。通过将供体和受体发色团分别标记到 SP1 环和球形胶束，进一步开发了人工光捕获纳米线，以模拟光合细菌的能量转移过程，因为它们的结构相似。吸收的能量可以在环周围的相邻供体内转移，并将收集到的能量传送到附近的受体发色团。人工光捕获纳米线是通过模仿天然LH-2复合物的结构特征而设计的，这对于探索体外光合作用过程具有重要意义。