Abstract
Cell-mediated living fabrication has great promise for generating materials with versatile, programmable functions. Here, we demonstrate the engineering of living materials consisting of semi-interpenetrating polymer networks (sIPN). The fabrication process is driven by the engineered bacteria encapsulated in a polymeric microcapsule, which serves as the initial scaffold. The bacteria grow and undergo programmed lysis in a density-dependent manner, releasing protein monomers decorated with reactive tags. Those protein monomers polymerize with each other to form the second polymeric component that is interlaced with the initial crosslinked polymeric scaffold. The formation of sIPN serves the dual purposes of enhancing the mechanical property of the living materials and anchoring effector proteins for diverse applications. The material is resilient to perturbations because of the continual assembly of the protein mesh from the monomers released by the engineered bacteria. We demonstrate the adoption of the platform to protect gut microbiota in animals from antibiotic-mediated perturbations. Our work lays the foundation for programming functional living materials for diverse applications.
Highlights
Cell-mediated living fabrication has great promise for generating materials with versatile, programmable functions
High cell densities lead to an increased plasmid copy number and greater E protein expression, which result lysis of a subpopulation of the bacteria and density-dependent-release of protein monomers
These elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) were fused with either multiple SpyCatcher or SpyTag sequences, so they can polymerize by covalent bonding (Supplementary Fig. 1)
Summary
Cell-mediated living fabrication has great promise for generating materials with versatile, programmable functions. The bacteria grow and undergo programmed lysis in a density-dependent manner, releasing protein monomers decorated with reactive tags Those protein monomers polymerize with each other to form the second polymeric component that is interlaced with the initial crosslinked polymeric scaffold. Most semi-IPNs are assembled by the synthetic polymers, the incorporation of effector proteins can generate biological sensing or actuating capabilities This incorporation can be achieved through physical absorption or entrapment of a functional protein to a scaffold, which, is prone to leaking due to the weak bonding[9]. Protein polymers or hydrogels can be assembled by recombinant proteins with reactive tags[17,18] This line of research is primarily done by using purified protein components, making the fabrication process timeconsuming[17,19].
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