Cohesive Living Bacterial Films with Tunable Mechanical Properties from Cell Surface Protein Display.

ABSTRACT: Engineered living materials (ELMs) constitute a novel class of functional materials that contain living organisms. The mechanical properties of many such systems are dominated by the polymeric matrices used to encapsulate the cellular components of the material, making it hard to tune the mechanical behavior through genetic manipulation. To address this issue, we have developed living materials in which mechanical properties are controlled by the cell-surface display of engineered proteins. Here, we show that engineered Esherichia coli cells outfitted with surface-displayed elastin-like proteins (ELPs, designated E6) grow into soft, cohesive bacterial films with biaxial moduli around 14 kPa. When subjected to bulge-testing, such films yielded at strains of approximately 10%. Introdu

SUBMITTER: Liu H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11574920 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature