Work

Congo Red Fluorescence for Rapid In Situ Characterization of Synthetic Curli Systems

Year: 2019

Type: article

Abstract: Curli are proteins produced by many bacteria as a structural component of biofilms, and they have recently emerged as a platform for fabrication of biological materials. Curli fibers are very robust and resistant to degradation, and the curli subunits can tolerate many protein fusions, facilitating the biosynthesis of novel functional materials. A serious bottleneck in the development of more sophisticated engineered curli systems is the rapid quantification of curli production by the bacteria. In this work we address this issue by developing a technique to monitor curli production directly in bacterial cultures, allowing for rapid curli quantification in a manner compatible with many powerful high-throughput techniques that can be used to engineer complex biological material systems.

Source: Applied and Environmental Microbiology

DOI: 10.1128/aem.00434-19

Authors: Anton Kan, Daniel P. Birnbaum, Pichet Praveschotinunt, Neel S. Joshi

Institutions: Harvard University, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering

Language: English

Topic: Biochemical and Structural Characterization

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Awards: Investigating the role of natural and engineered curli fibers in mediating interactions with the gut epithelium, SusChEM: Engineered protein-based biofilms as functional advanced materials