Template-Free Construction of Highly Ordered Monolayered Fluorescent Protein Nanosheets: A Bioinspired Artificial Light-Harvesting System

Abstract

Using biological materials for light-harvesting applications has attracted considerable attention in recent years. Such materials provide excellent environmental compatibility and often exhibit superior properties over synthetic materials. Herein, inspired by the outstanding energy transfer performance in coelenterates, we constructed a template-free, highly ordered two-dimensional light-harvesting system by covalent-induced coassembly of EBFP2 (donor) and EGFP (acceptor), in which the fluorescent chromophores were well distributed and adopted a fixed orientation. By introducing approximate square planar binding sites on the side surface of protein, assembly pattern was pin down and self-assembly extended in orthogonal directions to achieve monolayered and tessellated protein nanoarrays. The excellent antiself-quenching property of fluorescent proteins endowed the coassembled system with attractive light-harvesting capability. Even at high local concentrations, a low resonance energy transfer self-quenching was observed and, therefore, energy can be efficiently transferred. More importantly, the distance between adjacent chromophores is continuously adjustable. By making minor changes to the length of the inducing linker, we have achieved significant control over the size of the assembly. A micron-sized light-harvesting system with satisfactory energy transfer efficiency was finally obtained. This work developed a template-free light-harvesting system completely based on fluorescent proteins (FPs), which overcame the restriction of using templates. Not limited to this work, the special core−shell structure of FPs may be expected to direct the optimization of fluorescent dyes by cladding.

Electrochemiluminescence-Repurposed Abiological Catalysts in Full Protein Tag for Ultrasensitive Immunoassay

“…10,11 In light of this, an idea dawned on us about seeking a seemingly nonexistent ECL-active species of full biological backbone, just like the inspiring GFP family. 12,13 Their encoded sequence expression, the inherited site-specific association, and most importantly the unique "intramolecular" ECL conversion plus a seamless threading through allocated domains 14 may potentially bring about a neat and coherent framework as a new reference for ECL analytical design, being more likely to fulfill the dire need of biocompatible illuminators in the most advanced ECL imaging studies. Recently, privileged by recombinant engineering and directed mutagenesis of protein scaffolds, 15,16 multiple newto-nature biochemical behaviors were discovered, which above all else grants traditional enzymes a broad access to "handshaking" with abiotic substrates, 17 like in C−H activation, Fischer−Tropsch syntheses, olefin metatheses, cyclopropanation, and so on.…”

“…, recognition efficiency, probe compatibility, tagging ratio, ECL output conservancy, etc .) even for the optimal solutions in mature commercial kits. , In light of this, an idea dawned on us about seeking a seemingly non-existent ECL-active species of full biological backbone, just like the inspiring GFP family. , Their encoded sequence expression, the inherited site-specific association, and most importantly the unique “intramolecular” ECL conversion plus a seamless threading through allocated domains may potentially bring about a neat and coherent framework as a new reference for ECL analytical design, being more likely to fulfill the dire need of biocompatible illuminators in the most advanced ECL imaging studies.…”

Controllable and Diversiform Topological Morphologies of Self‐Assembling Supra‐Amphiphiles with Aggregation‐Induced Emission Characteristics for Mimicking Light‐Harvesting Antenna

“…The donor should be densely packed without significantly self-quenching effect, and the distance of donor/acceptor should be no longer than 10 nm; moreover, the emission of donor and the absorption of acceptor must certainly have good overlap, which allows the transfer of fluorescence resonance energy among adjacent donors and benefits the energy transfer from donor to acceptor. [54,55] Several scaffolds for artificial light-harvesting system have been exploited recently, such as protein arrays, [56][57][58] DNA templates, [59,60] and other hybrid materials. [61,62] While, most of these artificial light-harvesting systems suffer from the complex design and undesired aggregationcaused quenching (ACQ) effect in water.…”

Proteoliposomes as energy transferring nanomaterials: enhancing the spectral range of light-harvesting proteins using lipid-linked chromophores

“…Biological systems are a source of inspiration in solar energy research and nanotechnology, [1][2][3][4][5][6] as the early stages of energy absorption and transfer in photosynthesis have an efficiency approaching unity. 7 The membrane proteins which undertake photosynthetic light harvesting (LH) act in a conceptually similar way to a satellite dish, whereby antenna proteins channel energy towards Reaction Centre type proteins which perform photochemistry.…”