Recently,
we proposed a novel and effective strategy for enzyme
immobilization, namely, as elastin-like polypeptide (ELP)-mediated
silicification-based protein self-immobilization (ESPSI). Here, an
enzyme with an acidic isoelectric point (pI) was chosen to further
demonstrate the feasibility and generality of this method; pI is a
critical factor in biosilicification. The lichenase (BglS) from Bacillus subtilis 168, with a theoretical pI of 5.77, was
genetically fused to the cationic ELP. The recombinant chimera protein
BglS-ELP (B-E) was purified through ELP-based nonchromatographic inverse
transition cycling (ITC) method. B-E then was self-encapsulated within
silica nanoparticle (NP) via ELP-mediated biomimetic silicification,
producing the nanobiocatalyst B-E@silica. Excellent encapsulation
efficiency (>85%) could be achieved within a short immobilization
time (10 min). In addition, the encapsulation efficiency could be
promoted through temperature-induced phase transition. Meanwhile,
this method gave negligible protein leakage (<0.5%). Thus, the
B-E@silica showed good reusability, retaining ∼80% of the initial
activity after 10 reaction cycles. These results indicated that ESPSI
was suitable for the protein with an acidic pI. In addition, phase
transition was a unique route to improve immobilization efficiency.