Engineering Bacillus subtilis for the formation of a durable living biocomposite material

Sun Young Kang; Anaya R Pokhrel; Sara A Bratsch; Joey J Benson; Seung Oh Seo; Maureen B Quin; Alptekin Aksan; Claudia Schmidt-Dannert

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-27467-2

Engineering Bacillus subtilis for the formation of a durable living biocomposite material

Sun Young Kang
, Anaya R Pokhrel
, Sara A Bratsch
, Joey J Benson
, Seung Oh Seo
, Maureen B Quin
, Alptekin Aksan
, Claudia Schmidt-Dannert

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

49 Scopus citations

Abstract

Engineered living materials (ELMs) are a fast-growing area of research that combine approaches in synthetic biology and material science. Here, we engineer B. subtilis to become a living component of a silica material composed of self-assembling protein scaffolds for functionalization and cross-linking of cells. B. subtilis is engineered to display SpyTags on polar flagella for cell attachment to SpyCatcher modified secreted scaffolds. We engineer endospore limited B. subtilis cells to become a structural component of the material with spores for long-term storage of genetic programming. Silica biomineralization peptides are screened and scaffolds designed for silica polymerization to fabricate biocomposite materials with enhanced mechanical properties. We show that the resulting ELM can be regenerated from a piece of cell containing silica material and that new functions can be incorporated by co-cultivation of engineered B. subtilis strains. We believe that this work will serve as a framework for the future design of resilient ELMs.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	7133
Journal	Nature communications
Volume	12
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27467-2
State	Published - Dec 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA contract HR0011-17-2-0038) and supported by seed grants from the Biotechnology Institute at the University of Minnesota. Parts of this work were carried out in the University of Minnesota’s Characterization Facility, which receives partial support from the NSF through the MRSEC (Award Number DMR-2011401) and NNCI (Award Number ECCS-2025124) programs. We also acknowledge resources and staff at the University of Minnesota core facilities for contribution to this work: Imaging Center (Dr. Gail Celico, sample thin sectioning) and Center for Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS sample analysis, Dr. LeeAnn Higgins and Todd Markowski).

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© 2021, The Author(s).

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title = "Engineering Bacillus subtilis for the formation of a durable living biocomposite material",

abstract = "Engineered living materials (ELMs) are a fast-growing area of research that combine approaches in synthetic biology and material science. Here, we engineer B. subtilis to become a living component of a silica material composed of self-assembling protein scaffolds for functionalization and cross-linking of cells. B. subtilis is engineered to display SpyTags on polar flagella for cell attachment to SpyCatcher modified secreted scaffolds. We engineer endospore limited B. subtilis cells to become a structural component of the material with spores for long-term storage of genetic programming. Silica biomineralization peptides are screened and scaffolds designed for silica polymerization to fabricate biocomposite materials with enhanced mechanical properties. We show that the resulting ELM can be regenerated from a piece of cell containing silica material and that new functions can be incorporated by co-cultivation of engineered B. subtilis strains. We believe that this work will serve as a framework for the future design of resilient ELMs.",

author = "Kang, \{Sun Young\} and Pokhrel, \{Anaya R\} and Bratsch, \{Sara A\} and Benson, \{Joey J\} and Seo, \{Seung Oh\} and Quin, \{Maureen B\} and Alptekin Aksan and Claudia Schmidt-Dannert",

note = "Funding Information: This research was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA contract HR0011-17-2-0038) and supported by seed grants from the Biotechnology Institute at the University of Minnesota. Parts of this work were carried out in the University of Minnesota{\textquoteright}s Characterization Facility, which receives partial support from the NSF through the MRSEC (Award Number DMR-2011401) and NNCI (Award Number ECCS-2025124) programs. We also acknowledge resources and staff at the University of Minnesota core facilities for contribution to this work: Imaging Center (Dr. Gail Celico, sample thin sectioning) and Center for Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS sample analysis, Dr. LeeAnn Higgins and Todd Markowski). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s).",

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N1 - Funding Information: This research was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA contract HR0011-17-2-0038) and supported by seed grants from the Biotechnology Institute at the University of Minnesota. Parts of this work were carried out in the University of Minnesota’s Characterization Facility, which receives partial support from the NSF through the MRSEC (Award Number DMR-2011401) and NNCI (Award Number ECCS-2025124) programs. We also acknowledge resources and staff at the University of Minnesota core facilities for contribution to this work: Imaging Center (Dr. Gail Celico, sample thin sectioning) and Center for Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS sample analysis, Dr. LeeAnn Higgins and Todd Markowski). Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).

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AB - Engineered living materials (ELMs) are a fast-growing area of research that combine approaches in synthetic biology and material science. Here, we engineer B. subtilis to become a living component of a silica material composed of self-assembling protein scaffolds for functionalization and cross-linking of cells. B. subtilis is engineered to display SpyTags on polar flagella for cell attachment to SpyCatcher modified secreted scaffolds. We engineer endospore limited B. subtilis cells to become a structural component of the material with spores for long-term storage of genetic programming. Silica biomineralization peptides are screened and scaffolds designed for silica polymerization to fabricate biocomposite materials with enhanced mechanical properties. We show that the resulting ELM can be regenerated from a piece of cell containing silica material and that new functions can be incorporated by co-cultivation of engineered B. subtilis strains. We believe that this work will serve as a framework for the future design of resilient ELMs.

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Engineering Bacillus subtilis for the formation of a durable living biocomposite material

Abstract

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University of Minnesota Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (DMR-2011401)

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University Imaging Centers

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Engineering Bacillus subtilis for the formation of a durable living biocomposite material

Abstract

Bibliographical note

MRSEC Support

PubMed: MeSH publication types

Publisher link

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University of Minnesota Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (DMR-2011401)

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EM & LM Sample Preparation

University Imaging Centers

Cite this