Programmable stimuli-responsive polypeptides for biomimetic synthesis of silica nanocomposites and enzyme...

Bioinspired silicification is an attractive route for achieving unique silica nanocomposites. Herein, a novel, facile and inexpensive route for biosilica synthesis is developed using the stimuli-responsive elastin-like polypeptide (ELP). The ELP is precisely tailored to a silica-mineralizing peptide by programming it with lysine residues. The resulting cationic ELP[KV₈F-40] is purified in ultrahigh yield using a chromatography-free ITC purification technique based on thermal-responsive property. Excitingly, the specific activity of ELP is 40-fold higher than that of silaffin. Besides, efficient and strong entrapment of ELP is achieved with over 98% of immobilization yield and less than 2% of leakage. These imply that cationic ELP may be used as a bifunctional tag (purification and immobilization) for fusion protein. An enzyme (xylanase) is therefore chosen to genetically fuse to ELP. The ELP-fused xylanase is purified by ELP with high purity (~98%) and enables the rapid (within minutes) self-immobilization. The immobilization yield was greater than 95%, and the immobilized xylanases hardly leaked from the silica matrix, demonstrating high efficiency of the self-immobilization process. The strategy developed here may provide a new opportunity for fabricating functional silica nanocomposites in a feasible and inexpensive pathway, which will have great potentials in the field of biotechnology.