A Photonastic Prototissue Capable of Photo-Mechano-Chemical Transduction

Area of Science:

• Synthetic Biology
• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Controlled assembly of protocell units into 3D architectures has advanced.
• Mimicking energy transduction in living tissues with prototissues remains a challenge.
• Bottom-up synthetic biology requires sophisticated energy transduction mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address the challenge of energy transduction in prototissues.
• To report the bottom-up chemical construction of a photonastic prototissue.
• To endow prototissues with photo-mechano-chemical transduction capabilities.

Main Methods:

• Development of novel protocells with photothermal transducing proto-organelles (gold nanoparticles).
• Incorporation of a thermoresponsive polymeric proto-cortex within protocells.
• Assembly of advanced protocell units into functional prototissues.

Main Results:

• Constructed prototissues exhibit light-induced reversible contractions and complex motions.
• Demonstrated exploitation of these motions to reversibly switch off internalized enzyme metabolism.
• Achieved blockage of small substrate molecule access via light-induced contractions.

Conclusions:

• Provided a synthetic pathway for constructing prototissues with sophisticated energy transduction.
• Enabled rational design of emergent behaviors in synthetic materials.
• Addressed critical challenges in bottom-up synthetic biology and bioinspired materials engineering.