Immobilization of His-Tagged Endoglucanase on Gold via Various Ni-NTA Self-Assembled Monolayers and Its Hydrolytic Activity

Investigating organic multilayers by spectroscopic ellipsometry: specific and non-specific interactions of polyhistidine with NTA self-assembled monolayers

BACKGROUND

A versatile strategy for protein-surface coupling in biochips exploits the affinity for polyhistidine of the nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) group loaded with Ni(II). Methods based on optical reflectivity measurements such as spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) allow for label-free, non-invasive monitoring of molecule adsorption/desorption at surfaces.

RESULTS

This paper describes a SE study about the interaction of hexahistidine (His6) on gold substrates functionalized with a thiolate self-assembled monolayer bearing the NTA end group. By systematically applying the difference spectra method, which emphasizes the small changes of the ellipsometry spectral response upon the nanoscale thickening/thinning of the molecular film, we characterized different steps of the process such as the NTA-functionalization of Au, the adsorption of the His6 layer and its eventual displacement after reaction with competitive ligands. The films were investigated in liquid, and ex situ in ambient air. The SE investigation has been complemented by AFM measurements based on nanolithography methods (nanografting mode).

CONCLUSION

Our approach to the SE data, exploiting the full spectroscopic potential of the method and basic optical models, was able to provide a picture of the variation of the film thickness along the process. The combination of δΔ i +1 ,i (λ), δΨ i +1 ,i (λ) (layer-addition mode) and δΔ(†) i ', i +1(λ), δΨ(†) i ', i +1(λ) (layer-removal mode) difference spectra allowed us to clearly disentangle the adsorption of His6 on the Ni-free NTA layer, due to non specific interactions, from the formation of a neatly thicker His6 film induced by the Ni(II)-loading of the NTA SAM.

Enzymes as Green Catalysts for Precision Macromolecular Synthesis

The present article comprehensively reviews the macromolecular synthesis using enzymes as catalysts. Among the six main classes of enzymes, the three classes, oxidoreductases, transferases, and hydrolases, have been employed as catalysts for the in vitro macromolecular synthesis and modification reactions. Appropriate design of reaction including monomer and enzyme catalyst produces macromolecules with precisely controlled structure, similarly as in vivo enzymatic reactions. The reaction controls the product structure with respect to substrate selectivity, chemo-selectivity, regio-selectivity, stereoselectivity, and choro-selectivity. Oxidoreductases catalyze various oxidation polymerizations of aromatic compounds as well as vinyl polymerizations. Transferases are effective catalysts for producing polysaccharide having a variety of structure and polyesters. Hydrolases catalyzing the bond-cleaving of macromolecules in vivo, catalyze the reverse reaction for bond forming in vitro to give various polysaccharides and functionalized polyesters. The enzymatic polymerizations allowed the first in vitro synthesis of natural polysaccharides having complicated structures like cellulose, amylose, xylan, chitin, hyaluronan, and chondroitin. These polymerizations are "green" with several respects; nontoxicity of enzyme, high catalyst efficiency, selective reactions under mild conditions using green solvents and renewable starting materials, and producing minimal byproducts. Thus, the enzymatic polymerization is desirable for the environment and contributes to "green polymer chemistry" for maintaining sustainable society.

Impact of nanoparticle aggregation on protein recovery through a pentadentate chelate ligand on magnetic carriers

The growing need for more efficient separation techniques still dominates downstream processing of biomolecules, thus encouraging the continuous development of advanced nanomaterials. In this paper we present an improved process for recovering recombinant histidine tagged green fluorescent protein from an E. coli cell lysate. Superparamagnetic core-shell nanocarriers are functionalized with a pentadentate chelate affinity ligand and then loaded with metal ions (Cu(2+), Ni(2+), or Zn(2+)). The separation process yields high binding capacity (250 mg/g), good selectivity, purity >98%, good recyclability with 90% capacity after 9 cycles, and long-term stability. We determined the main physical properties of the magnetite-based nanoparticles such as saturation magnetization (59 A m(2)/kg), primary particle diameter (22 ± 4 nm), and specific surface area (89 m(2)/g). Our results show that this material is a promising tool for bioseparation applications. One special focus of the work includes analyzing the changes in the hydrodynamic size distribution using dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy. We relate these effects to different interaction levels in the system and discuss how the stronger aggregation of the magnetite core is the main limiting factor for the separation yield, leading to a considerable decrease in the number of metal ions available for biomolecular capture. Otherwise weaker interactions lead instead to agglomeration effects that have no impact on the binding capacity of the system. The simple relation between the size of the aggregated units and the size of the primary particles corresponds approximately to the relation between the number of existing binding sites and the actual protein binding in the separation process. Compared with that, the effect of steric hindrance among proteins is of less significance.