CybOrg – bacteria with a nano-based organelle

Materials cannot replicate. Today we know how to synthesize homogeneous nanomaterials, but we cannot further divide them. On the other hand, living organisms cannot exploit the unique properties that originate from the plasmonic or quantum size effect of Au NPs and semiconductor-based quantum dots (QDs).

In recent years, nanoparticles (NPs) and quantum dots (QDs) attracted the scientific community due to their unique mechanical, chemical and optical properties. As a result of their extremely high surface to volume ratio, NPs have a very active surface chemistry in comparison to their bulk counterparts. The synthesis of uniform NPs with controlled sizes and shapes has great importance.

Proteins have successfully been used to fabricate verity of nanomaterials because of their well-defined morphology. An example of a natural, self-assembling protein system is represented by the thermophilic protein Stable Protein 1 (SP1). SP1 is a homo-oligomeric (12-mer) protein that creates a ring-shaped structure with a central inner pore of 2-3nm. Its cavity could serve as a template for the synthesis of different NPs.

Here we present a new concept for a self-sustained biotic-abiotic CybOrg organism, which comprises a biological system with an add-on, nano-based organelle. This new organelle will be comprised by a protein (e.g. SP1) that will serve as a template for synthesis of metal NPs/QDs. This new nano-element could be further exploited by the cell for different pathways, consequently instilling new properties and abilities to the new CybOrg bacteria.

In preliminary work, we conducted in vitro experiments in which we examined the ability of the protein alone to allow the synthesis of uniform metal NPs, including Au and Pd. The catalysis of the bio-stabled NPs was also investigated.