We report on the physical and optical characterization of liposomes formed by extrusion and sonication, two widely used methods for vesicle preparation. We also address the issue of whether the properties of bilayers formed from liposomes prepared by the two techniques differ at the molecular and mesoscopic levels. We used the phospholipid 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC), with and without cholesterol, to form liposomes, incorporating 1-oleoyl-2-[12-[(7-nitro-2-1,3-benzoxadiazol-4-yl)amino]dodecanoyl]-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (18:1-12:0 NBD-PC) as an optical probe of dynamics. We measured the physical morphology of liposomes by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS), and the rotational and translational diffusion of 18:1-12:0 NBD-PC by time correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) and fluorescence recovery after pattern photobleaching (FRAPP), respectively. We find that, despite apparent differences in average size and size distribution, both methods of preparation produced liposomes that exhibit the same molecular scale environment. The translational diffusion behavior of the tethered chromophore in planar bilayer lipid membranes formed from the two types of liposomes also yielded similar results.

The metal-reducing bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens produces protein nanowires (pili) for fast discharge of respiratory electrons to extracellular electron acceptors such as iron oxides and uranium. Charge transport along the pili requires aromatic residues, which cluster once the peptide subunits (pilins) assemble keeping inter-aromic distances and geometries optimal for multistep hopping. The presence of intramolecular aromatic contacts and the predominantly α-helical conformation of the pilins has been proposed to contribute to charge transport and rectification. To test this, we self-assembled recombinant, thiolated pilins as a monolayer on gold electrodes and demonstrated their conductivity by conductive probe atomic force microscopy. The studies unmasked a crossover from exponential to weak distance dependence of conductivity and shifts in the mechanical properties of the film that are consistent with a transition from interchain tunneling in the upper, aromatic-free regions of the helices to intramolecular hopping via aromatic residues at the amino terminus. Furthermore, the mechanistic stratification effectively "doped" the pilins at the amino terminus, favoring electron flow in the direction opposite to the helix dipole. However, the effect of aromatic dopants on rectification is voltage-dependent and observed only at the low (100 mV) voltages that operate in biological systems. The results thus provide evidence for a peptide environment optimized for electron transfer at biological voltages and in the direction needed for the respiration of external electron acceptors. The implications of these results for the development of hybrid devices that harness the natural abilities of the pilins to bind and reduce metals are discussed.

The discovery in 2005 of conductive protein appendages (pili) in the metal-reducing bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens challenged our understanding of biological electron transfer and pioneered studies in electromicrobiology that revealed the electronic basis of many microbial metabolisms and interactions. The protein nature of the pili afforded opportunities for engineering novel conductive peptides for the synthesis of nanowires via cost-effective and scalable manufacturing approaches. However, methods did not exist for efficient production, purification, and in vitro assembly of pilins into nanowires. Here we describe platforms for high-yield recombinant synthesis of Geobacter pilin derivatives and their assembly as protein nanowires with biochemical and electronic properties rivaling those of the native pili. The bottom-up fabrication of protein nanowires exclusively from pilin building blocks confirms unequivocally the charge transport capacity of the peptide assembly and establishes the intellectual foundation needed to manufacture pilin-based nanowires in bioelectronics and other applications.

This work examines the immobilization of myoglobin from horse skeletal muscle in hydrophilic polymer networks. Due to specific changes in the spectroscopic properties of hemoproteins during ligand binding, they could be employed in optical sensing devices. Two immobilization techniques were considered: imbibition and entrapment. Anionic hydrogels composed of methacrylic acid (MAA), cationic hydrogels composed of dimethylamino ethyl methacrylate (DMAEM), and neutral hydrogels composed of poly(ethylene glycol) monomethyl ether monomethacrylate (PEGMA; molecular weight = 200, 400, or 1000), all crosslinked with poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate (PEGDMA) (molecular weight = 200, 600, or 1000), were synthesized by free-radical solution polymerization. By the imbibition method, MAA-based hydrogels incorporated the highest amount of myoglobin in comparison with PEGMA or DMAEM polymers. The evaluation of the correlation length of the networks revealed that MAA hydrogels had the highest correlation length in comparison with PEGMA-containing matrices or DMAEM hydrogels. Release experiments from MAA hydrogels at pHs 5.8 and 7.0 showed that the solute-transport mechanism was a combination of Fickian and chain relaxation diffusion. Myoglobin-loaded MAA hydrogels retained their heme reactivity after the immobilization process. The release of myoglobin incorporated by entrapment in MAA-PEGDMA hydrogels was highly influenced by the chain relaxation process. The diffusion coefficients of myoglobin incorporated by entrapment into anionic hydrogels were 2 orders of magnitude smaller (~10-13) than those for myoglobin incorporated by imbibition (10-11), both evaluated at pH 7.0. Substrate binding studies indicated that the protein biological activity was not compromised in those hydrogels loaded by the imbibition method, whereas prepolymeric solutions showed detrimental effects on protein stability.