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Updated: Sep 22, 2025

Membrane Transport Processes Analyzed by a Highly Parallel Nanopore Chip System at Single Protein Resolution
Published on: August 16, 2016
How Pore Architecture Regulates the Function of Nanoscale Protein Compartments
Nuren Tasneem1, Taylor N Szyszka1,2, Eric N Jenner1
1School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney, Eastern Avenue, Camperdown, New South Wales 2006, Australia.
Abstract:
Self-assembling proteins can form porous compartments that adopt well-defined architectures at the nanoscale. In nature, protein compartments act as semipermeable barriers to enable spatial separation and organization of complex biochemical processes. The compartment pores play a key role in their overall function by selectively controlling the influx and efflux of important biomolecular species. By engineering the pores, the functionality of compartments can be tuned to facilitate non-native applications, such as artificial nanoreactors for catalysis. In this review, we analyze how protein structure determines the porosity and impacts the function of both native and engineered compartments, highlighting the wealth of structural data recently obtained by cryo-EM and X-ray crystallography. Through this analysis, we offer perspectives on how current structural insights can inform future studies into the design of artificial protein compartments as nanoreactors with tunable porosity and function.
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