Evolutionary selection of enzymatically synthesized semiconductors from biomimetic mineralization vesicles.

ABSTRACT: The way nature evolves and sculpts materials using proteins inspires new approaches to materials engineering but is still not completely understood. Here, we present a cell-free synthetic biological platform to advance studies of biologically synthesized solid-state materials. This platform is capable of simultaneously exerting many of the hierarchical levels of control found in natural biomineralization, including genetic, chemical, spatial, structural, and morphological control, while supporting the evolutionary selection of new mineralizing proteins and the corresponding genetically encoded materials that they produce. DNA-directed protein expression and enzymatic mineralization occur on polystyrene microbeads in water-in-oil emulsions, yielding synthetic surrogates of biomineralizing c

SUBMITTER: Bawazer LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3387099 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature