Geneticability of Live‐Cell Site‐Specific Synthesis of Quantum Dots
Abstract
Abstract Molecular‐scale integration of non‐natural functional components into living systems for precise manipulation, monitoring, and enhancement of organisms remains a great challenge. Here, we achieved the geneticable synthesis of functional inorganic nanomaterials with molecular‐level spatial precision within live mammalian cells. By genetically encoding a cysteine‐rich protein tag named 1DFS, and tuning its intracellular inherent metabolic pathways, organic molecules can be precisely synergized with inorganic molecules at a specific site of the protein of interest within live cells to grow a single inorganic semiconductor nanocrystal‐specifically quantum dot (QD). This, in turn, endows the protein with unique fluorescent functions for precise and stable protein labeling even after multiple cell passages. This approach is flexible and universal, and QD can not only integrate into the specific protein in live cells but also synchronously grow on the delicate viral nucleoprotein (NP) during the natural replication and assembly of virions in the host cells. The labeled NPs then accurately assemble into viral ribonucleoproteins deep inside virions, resulting in fluorescent virions with full infectivity that exceeds capabilities of conventional genetic manipulation. This work provides a programmable platform for geneticable growth of inorganic nanomaterials at specific molecular sites, opening a new frontier in precise inorganic‐enabled synthetic biology.
Article Details
Authors (11)
Qianqian Sun
Hai‐Yan Xie
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences Peking University Beijing 100191 P.R. China
Yusi Hu
Engineering Research Center of Tropical Medicine Innovation and Transformation of Ministry of Education, International Joint Research Center of Human-Machine Intelligent Collaborative for Tumor Precision Diagnosis and Treatment of Hainan Province, School of Pharmacy
Juan Kong
College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, The Institute for Advanced Studies
Yi‐Fan Wang
State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology Tianjin Key Laboratory of Biosensing and Molecular Recognition Frontiers Science Centre For New Organic Matter Research Centre for Analytical Sciences College of Chemistry School of Medicine and Frontiers Science Center for Cell Responses Nankai University Tianjin P.R. China
Xinran Xu
Jianhong Jia
State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Frontiers Science Center for New Organic Matter, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Biosensing and Molecular Recognition, Research Center for Analytical Sciences, College of Chemistry, Frontiers Science Center for Cell Responses, Haihe Laboratory of Sustainable Chemical Transformations, and Engineering Research Center of Thin Film Optoelectronics Technology (Ministry of Education)
Zhi‐Gang Wang
State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology Tianjin Key Laboratory of Biosensing and Molecular Recognition Frontiers Science Centre For New Organic Matter Research Centre for Analytical Sciences College of Chemistry School of Medicine and Frontiers Science Center for Cell Responses Nankai University Tianjin P.R. China
Shu‐Lin Liu
State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology Tianjin Key Laboratory of Biosensing and Molecular Recognition Frontiers Science Centre For New Organic Matter Research Centre for Analytical Sciences College of Chemistry School of Medicine and Frontiers Science Center for Cell Responses Nankai University Tianjin P.R. China
Ling Huang
Dai‐Wen Pang
Frontiers Science Center for New Organic Matter Research Center for Analytical Sciences College of Chemistry State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology Tianjin Key Laboratory of Biosensing and Molecular Recognition College of Life Sciences Frontiers Science Center for Cell Responses National Demonstration Center for Experimental Chemistry Education Nankai University Tianjin P. R. China