Abstract
We report a bottom-up synthetic biology approach to engineering vesicles with programmable permeabilities. Exploiting the concentration-dependent relationship between constitutively active pores (alpha-hemolysin) and blockers allows blockers to behave as molecular regulators for tuning permeability, enabling us to systematically modulate cargo release kinetics without changing the lipid fabric of the system.
Highlights
We report a bottom-up synthetic biology approach to engineering vesicles with programmable permeabilities
These approaches rely on the application of external forces and the extent of permeability cannot be controlled systematically. They are binary in nature and offer no sustainable control over bilayer permeability, especially if the compartment is destroyed in the process. We address this problem by demonstrating that membrane permeability can be finely tuned by exploiting the relationship between a constitutively active membrane pore, alpha-hemolysin (a-HL), and the reversible blocker TRIMEB (heptakis(2,3,6-tri-O-methyl)b-cyclodextrin)
Due to the larger size of the blocker compared to the pore, it is unlikely that TRIMEB itself can fully translocate through a-HL
Summary
We report a bottom-up synthetic biology approach to engineering vesicles with programmable permeabilities. Programming membrane permeability using integrated membrane pores and blockers as molecular regulators†
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