Biophysical Methods for the Elucidation of the S-Layer Proteins/Metal Interaction
Pablo Mobili
Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos (Conicet La Plata, UNLP), 1900 La Plata, Argentina
Maria de los Angeles Serradell
Laboratorio de Microbiología, Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 47 y 115, 1900 La Plata, Argentina
Claudine Mayer
Département de Biologie Structurale et Chimie, Institut Pasteur, 75015 Paris, France and UMR 3528, CNRS, 75015 Paris, France and Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Cellule Pasteur, 75015 Paris, France
Véronique Arluison
Université Paris Diderot, PRES Sorbonne-Paris Cité, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France and Laboratoire Jean Perrin FRE 3231 CNRS/Paris 6 and Laboratoire Léon Brillouin, UMR12 CEA/CNRS, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, 91191 Gif sur Yvette, France
Andrea Gomez-Zavaglia *
Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos (Conicet La Plata, UNLP), 1900 La Plata, Argentina
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Surface-layers (S-layers) are macromolecular paracrystalline arrays of proteins or glycoproteins that can self-assemble into 2-dimensional semi-permeable meshworks to overlay the cell surface of many bacteria and archaea. They usually assemble into lattices with oblique, square or hexagonal symmetry and serve as an interface between the bacterial cell and the environment. Isolated S-layers can recrystallize into two-dimensional regular arrays in suspension or on various surfaces, thus being an appropriate material for several bionanotechnological purposes. Promising applications of S-layers include their use as biotemplates for the capture of metal ions or the synthesis of metal nanoclusters. Considering the use of S-layers as biotemplates for the organization of metal ions or metallic nanoclusters, research on potential of surface layer proteins (SLP) and metals can be understood as an interdisciplinary field, in which different biophysical techniques supply complementary information. In this review, we discuss the SLP as native or engineered “bottom-up” building blocks for metal immobilization structures. We also describe the biophysical techniques used to analyze metal binding properties as well as the information obtained from the investigation of these structures.
Keywords: Protein self-assembly, metal ions biosorption, biomineralization, nanobiotechnology