Facilitated translocation of polypeptides through a single nanopore

Beta-Barrel Nanopores as Diagnostic Sensors: An Engineering Perspective

Biological nanopores are ultrasensitive and highly attractive platforms for disease diagnostics, including the sequencing of viral and microbial genes and the detection of biomarkers and pathogens. To utilize biological nanopores as diagnostic sensors, they have been engineered through various methods resulting in the accurate and highly sensitive detection of biomarkers and disease-related biomolecules. Among diverse biological nanopores, the β-barrel-containing nanopores have advantages in nanopore engineering because of their robust structure, making them well-suited for modifications. In this review, we highlight the engineering approaches for β-barrel-containing nanopores used in single-molecule sensing for applications in early diagnosis and prognosis. In the highlighted studies, β-barrel nanopores can be modified by genetic mutation to change the structure; alter charge distributions; or add enzymes, aptamers, and protein probes to enhance sensitivity and accuracy. Furthermore, this review discusses challenges and future perspectives for advancing nanopore-based diagnostic sensors.

New Insights for Biosensing: Lessons from Microbial Defense Systems

Microorganisms have gained defense systems during the lengthy process of evolution over millions of years. Such defense systems can protect them from being attacked by invading species (e.g., CRISPR-Cas for establishing adaptive immune systems and nanopore-forming toxins as virulence factors) or enable them to adapt to different conditions (e.g., gas vesicles for achieving buoyancy control). These microorganism defense systems (MDS) have inspired the development of biosensors that have received much attention in a wide range of fields including life science research, food safety, and medical diagnosis. This Review comprehensively analyzes biosensing platforms originating from MDS for sensing and imaging biological analytes. We first describe a basic overview of MDS and MDS-inspired biosensing platforms (e.g., CRISPR-Cas systems, nanopore-forming proteins, and gas vesicles), followed by a critical discussion of their functions and properties. We then discuss several transduction mechanisms (optical, acoustic, magnetic, and electrical) involved in MDS-inspired biosensing. We further detail the applications of the MDS-inspired biosensors to detect a variety of analytes (nucleic acids, peptides, proteins, pathogens, cells, small molecules, and metal ions). In the end, we propose the key challenges and future perspectives in seeking new and improved MDS tools that can potentially lead to breakthrough discoveries in developing a new generation of biosensors with a combination of low cost; high sensitivity, accuracy, and precision; and fast detection. Overall, this Review gives a historical review of MDS, elucidates the principles of emulating MDS to develop biosensors, and analyzes the recent advancements, current challenges, and future trends in this field. It provides a unique critical analysis of emulating MDS to develop robust biosensors and discusses the design of such biosensors using elements found in MDS, showing that emulating MDS is a promising approach to conceptually advancing the design of biosensors.

Current noise of a protein-selective biological nanopore

1/f current noise is ubiquitous in protein pores, porins, and channels. We have previously shown that a protein-selective biological nanopore with an external protein receptor can function as a 1/f noise generator when a high-affinity protein ligand is reversibly captured by the receptor. Here, we demonstrate that the binding affinity and concentration of the ligand are key determinants for the nature of current noise. For example, 1/f was absent when a protein ligand was reversibly captured at a much lower concentration than its equilibrium dissociation constant against the receptor. Furthermore, we also analyzed the composite current noise that resulted from mixtures of low-affinity and high-affinity ligands against the same receptor. This study highlights the significance of protein recognition events in the current noise fluctuations across biological membranes.

Kinetics of the multitasking high-affinity Win binding site of WDR5 in restricted and unrestricted conditions

Recent advances in quantitative proteomics show that WD40 proteins play a pivotal role in numerous cellular networks. Yet, they have been fairly unexplored and their physical associations with other proteins are ambiguous. A quantitative understanding of these interactions has wide-ranging significance. WD40 repeat protein 5 (WDR5) interacts with all members of human SET1/MLL methyltransferases, which regulate methylation of the histone 3 lysine 4 (H3K4). Here, using real-time binding measurements in a high-throughput setting, we identified the kinetic fingerprint of transient associations between WDR5 and 14-residue WDR5 interaction (Win) motif peptides of each SET1 protein (SET1Win). Our results reveal that the high-affinity WDR5-SET1Win interactions feature slow association kinetics. This finding is likely due to the requirement of SET1Win to insert into the narrow WDR5 cavity, also named the Win binding site. Furthermore, our explorations indicate fairly slow dissociation kinetics. This conclusion is in accordance with the primary role of WDR5 in maintaining the functional integrity of a large multisubunit complex, which regulates the histone methylation. Because the Win binding site is considered a key therapeutic target, the immediate outcomes of this study could form the basis for accelerated developments in medical biotechnology.

Single-molecule analysis of interaction between p53TAD and MDM2 using aerolysin nanopores

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are regarded as important, but undruggable targets. Intrinsically disordered p53 transactivation domain (p53TAD) mediates PPI with mouse double minute 2 (MDM2), which is an attractive anticancer target for therapeutic intervention. Here, using aerolysin nanopores, we probed the p53TAD peptide/MDM2 interaction and its modulation by small-molecule PPI inhibitors or p53TAD phosphorylation. Although the p53TAD peptide showed short-lived (<100 ms) translocation, the protein complex induced the characteristic extraordinarily long-lived (0.1 s ∼ tens of min) current blockage, indicating that the MDM2 recruitment by p53TAD peptide almost fully occludes the pore. Simultaneously, the protein complex formation substantially reduced the event frequency of short-lived peptide translocation. Notably, the addition of small-molecule PPI inhibitors, Nutlin-3 and AMG232, or Thr18 phosphorylation of p53TAD peptide, were able to diminish the extraordinarily long-lived events and restore the short-lived translocation of the peptide rescued from the complex. Taken together, our results elucidate a novel mechanism of single-molecule sensing for analyzing PPIs and their inhibitors using aerolysin nanopores. This novel methodology may contribute to remarkable improvements in drug discovery targeted against undruggable PPIs.

Insertion state of modular protein nanopores into a membrane

In the past decade, significant progress has been made in the development of new protein nanopores. Despite these advancements, there is a pressing need for the creation of nanopores equipped with relatively large functional groups for the sampling of biomolecular events on their extramembranous side. Here, we designed, produced, and analyzed protein nanopores encompassing a robust truncation of a monomeric β-barrel membrane protein. An exogenous stably folded protein was anchored within the aqueous phase via a flexible peptide tether of varying length. We have extensively examined the pore-forming properties of these modular protein nanopores using protein engineering and single-molecule electrophysiology. This study revealed distinctions in the nanopore conductance and current fluctuations that arose from tethering the exogenous protein to either the N terminus or the C terminus. Remarkably, these nanopores insert into a planar lipid membrane with one specific conductance among a set of three substate conductance values. Moreover, we demonstrate that the occurrence probabilities of these insertion substates depend on the length of the peptide tether, the orientation of the exogenous protein with respect to the nanopore opening, and the molecular mass of tethered protein. In addition, the three conductance values remain unaltered by major changes in the composition of modular nanopores. The outcomes of this work serve as a platform for further developments in areas of protein engineering of transmembrane pores and biosensor technology.

Analysis with biological nanopore: On-pore, off-pore strategies and application in biological fluids

Inspired from ion channels in biology, nanopores have been developed as promising analytical tools. In principle, nanopores provide crucial information from the observation and analysis of ionic current modulations caused by the interaction between target analytes and fluidic pores. In this respect, the biological, chemical and physical parameters of the nanopore regime need to be well-understood and regulated for intermolecular interaction. Because of well-defined molecular structures, biological nanopores consequently are of a focal point, allowing precise interaction analysis at single-molecule level. In this overview, two analytical strategies are summarized and discussed accordingly, upon the challenges arising in case-dependent analysis using biological nanopores. One kind of strategies relies on modification, functionalization and engineering on nanopore confined interface to improve molecular recognition sites (on-pore strategies); The other kind of highlighted strategies concerns to measurement of various chemistry/biochemistry based interactions triggered by employed molecular agents or probes (off-pore strategies). In particularly, a few recent paradigms using these strategies for practical application of accurate analysis of biomarkers in biological fluids are illustrated. To end, the challenging and future outlook of using analytical tools by means of biological nanopores are depicted.

Single-Molecule Protein Detection in a Biofluid Using a Quantitative Nanopore Sensor

Protein detection in complex biological fluids has wide-ranging significance across proteomics and molecular medicine. Existing detectors cannot readily distinguish between specific and nonspecific interactions in a heterogeneous solution. Here, we show that this daunting shortcoming can be overcome by using a protein bait-containing biological nanopore in mammalian serum. The capture and release events of a protein analyte by the tethered protein bait occur outside the nanopore and are accompanied by uniform current openings. Conversely, nonspecific pore penetrations by nontarget components of serum, which take place inside the nanopore, are featured by irregular current blockades. As a result of this unique peculiarity of the readout between specific protein captures and nonspecific pore penetration events, our selective sensor can quantitatively sample proteins at single-molecule precision in a manner distinctive from those employed by prevailing methods. Because our sensor can be integrated into nanofluidic devices and coupled with high-throughput technologies, our approach will have a transformative impact in protein identification and quantification in clinical isolates for disease prognostics and diagnostics.

Interactions of a Polypeptide with a Protein Nanopore Under Crowding Conditions

Molecular crowding, a ubiquitous feature of the cellular environment, has significant implications in the kinetics and equilibrium of biopolymer interactions. In this study, a single charged polypeptide is exposed to competing forces that drive it into a transmembrane protein pore versus forces that pull it outside. Using single-molecule electrophysiology, we provide compelling experimental evidence that the kinetic details of the polypeptide-pore interactions are substantially affected by high concentrations of less-penetrating polyethylene glycols (PEGs). At a polymer concentration above a critical value, the presence of these neutral macromolecular crowders increases the rate constant of association but decreases the rate constant of dissociation, resulting in a stronger polypeptide-pore interaction. Moreover, a larger-molecular weight PEG exhibits a lower rate constant of association but a higher rate constant of dissociation than those values corresponding to a smaller-molecular weight PEG. These outcomes are in accord with a lower diffusion constant of the polypeptide and higher depletion-attraction forces between the polypeptide and transmembrane protein pore under crowding and confinement conditions.

The Utility of Nanopore Technology for Protein and Peptide Sensing

Resistive pulse nanopore sensing enables label-free single-molecule analysis of a wide range of analytes. An increasing number of studies have demonstrated the feasibility and usefulness of nanopore sensing for protein and peptide characterization. Nanopores offer the potential to study a variety of protein-related phenomena that includes unfolding kinetics, differences in unfolding pathways, protein structure stability, and free-energy profiles of DNA-protein and RNA-protein binding. In addition to providing a tool for fundamental protein characterization, nanopores have also been used as highly selective protein detectors in various solution mixtures and conditions. This review highlights these and other developments in the area of nanopore-based protein and peptide detection.

Detergent Desorption of Membrane Proteins Exhibits Two Kinetic Phases

Gradual dissociation of detergent molecules from water-insoluble membrane proteins culminates in protein aggregation. However, the time-dependent trajectory of this process remains ambiguous because the signal-to-noise ratio of most spectroscopic and calorimetric techniques is drastically declined by the presence of protein aggregates in solution. We show that by using steady-state fluorescence polarization (FP) spectroscopy the dissociation of the protein-detergent complex (PDC) can be inspected in real time at detergent concentrations below the critical micelle concentration. This article provides experimental evidence of the coexistence of two distinct phases of the dissociations of detergent monomers from membrane proteins. We first noted a slow detergent predesolvation process, which was accompanied by a relatively modest change in the FP anisotropy, suggesting a small number of dissociated detergent monomers from the proteomicelles. This predesolvation phase was followed by a fast detergent desolvation process, which was highlighted by a major alteration in the FP anisotropy. The durations and rates of these phases were dependent on both the detergent concentration and the interfacial PDC interactions. Further development of this approach might lead to the creation of a new semiquantitative method for the assessment of the kinetics of association and dissociation of proteomicelles.

Identification of single amino acid differences in uniformly charged homopolymeric peptides with aerolysin nanopore

There are still unmet needs in finding new technologies for biomedical diagnostic and industrial applications. A technology allowing the analysis of size and sequence of short peptide molecules of only few molecular copies is still challenging. The fast, low-cost and label-free single-molecule nanopore technology could be an alternative for addressing these critical issues. Here, we demonstrate that the wild-type aerolysin nanopore enables the size-discrimination of several short uniformly charged homopeptides, mixed in solution, with a single amino acid resolution. Our system is very sensitive, allowing detecting and characterizing a few dozens of peptide impurities in a high purity commercial peptide sample, while conventional analysis techniques fail to do so.

Remote Activation of a Nanopore for High-Performance Genetic Detection Using a pH Taxis-Mimicking Mechanism

Aerolysin protein pore has been widely used for sensing peptides and proteins. However, only a few groups explored this nanopore for nucleic acids detection. The challenge is the extremely low capture efficiency for nucleic acids (>10 bases), which severely lowers the sensitivity of an aerolysin-based genetic biosensor. Here we reported a simple and easy-to-operate approach to noncovalently transform aerolysin into a highly nucleic acids-sensitive nanopore. Through a remote pH-modulation mechanism, we simply lower the pH on one side of the pore, then aerolysin is immediately "activated" and enabled to capture target DNA/RNA efficiently from the opposite side of the pore. This mechanism also decelerates DNA translocation, a desired property for sequencing and gene detection, allowing temporal separation of DNAs in different lengths. This method provides insight into the nanopore engineering for biosensing, making aerolysin applicable in genetic and epigenetic detections of long nucleic acids.

Effects of Nanopore Charge Decorations on the Translocation Dynamics of DNA

We have investigated the dynamics of single-stranded DNA as it translocates through charge-mutated protein nanopores. Translocation of DNA is a crucial step in nanopore-based sequencing platforms, where control over translocation speed remains one of the main challenges. Taking advantage of the interactions between negatively charged DNA and positively charged amino acid residues, the translocation speed of DNA can be manipulated by deliberate charge decorations inside the nanopore. We employed coarse-grained Langevin dynamics simulations to monitor the step-by-step movement of DNA through different mutations of α-hemolysin protein nanopores. We found that although the average translocation time per nucleotide is longer, in agreement with experiments, the DNA nucleotides do not translocate with a uniform speed. Furthermore, the location and spacing of the charge decorations can alter the translocation dynamics significantly, trapping DNA in some cases. Our findings can give insights when designing charge patterns in nanopores.

Single Molecule Nanopore Spectrometry for Peptide Detection

Sensing and characterization of water-soluble peptides is of critical importance in a wide variety of bioapplications. Single molecule nanopore spectrometry (SMNS) is based on the idea that one can use biological protein nanopores to resolve different sized molecules down to limits set by the blockade duration and noise. Previous work has shown that this enables discrimination between polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecules that differ by a single monomer unit. This paper describes efforts to extend SMNS to a variety of biologically relevant, water-soluble peptides. We describe the use of Au25(SG)18 clusters, previously shown to improve PEG detection, to increase the on- and off-rate of peptides to the pore. In addition, we study the role that fluctuations play in the single molecule nanopore spectrometry (SMNS) methodology and show that modifying solution conditions to increase peptide flexibility (via pH or chaotropic salt) leads to a nearly 2-fold reduction in the current blockade fluctuations and a corresponding narrowing of the peaks in the blockade distributions. Finally, a model is presented that connects the current blockade depths to the mass of the peptides, which shows that our enhanced SMNS detection improves the mass resolution of the nanopore sensor more than 2-fold for the largest cationic peptides studied.

Aberrantly Large Single-Channel Conductance of Polyhistidine Arm-Containing Protein Nanopores

There have been only a few studies reporting on the impact of polyhistidine affinity tags on the structure, function, and dynamics of proteins. Because of the relatively short size of the tags, they are often thought to have little or no effect on the conformation or activity of a protein. Here, using membrane protein design and single-molecule electrophysiology, we determined that the presence of a hexahistidine arm at the N-terminus of a truncated FhuA-based protein nanopore, leaving the C-terminus untagged, produces an unusual increase in the unitary conductance to ∼8 nS in 1 M KCl. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest single-channel conductance ever recorded with a monomeric β-barrel outer membrane protein. The hexahistidine arm was captured by an anti-polyhistidine tag monoclonal antibody added to the side of the channel-forming protein addition, but not to the opposite side, documenting that this truncated FhuA-based protein nanopore inserts into a planar lipid bilayer with a preferred orientation. This finding is in agreement with the protein insertion in vivo, in which the large loops face the extracellular side of the membrane. The aberrantly large single-channel conductance, likely induced by a greater cross-sectional area of the pore lumen, along with the vectorial insertion into a lipid membrane, will have profound implications for further developments of engineered protein nanopores.

Interference-Free Detection of Genetic Biomarkers Using Synthetic Dipole-Facilitated Nanopore Dielectrophoresis

The motion of polarizable particles in a nonuniform electric field (i.e., dielectrophoresis) has been extensively used for concentration, separation, sorting, and transport of biological particles from cancer cells and viruses to biomolecules such as DNAs and proteins. However, current approaches to dielectrophoretic manipulation are not sensitive enough to selectively target individual molecular species. Here, we describe the application of the dielectrophoretic principle for selective detection of DNA and RNA molecules using an engineered biological nanopore. The key element of our approach is a synthetic polycationic nanocarrier that selectively binds to the target biomolecules, dramatically increasing their dielectrophoretic response to the electric field gradient generated by the nanopore. The dielectrophoretic capture of the nanocarrier-target complexes is detected as a transient blockade of the nanopore ionic current, while any nontarget nucleic acids are repelled from the nanopore by electrophoresis and thus do not interfere with the signal produced by the target's capture. Strikingly, we show that even modestly charged nanocarriers can be used to capture DNA or RNA molecules of any length or secondary structure and simultaneously detect several molecular targets. Such selective, multiplex molecular detection technology would be highly desirable for real-time analysis of complex clinical samples.

Global redesign of a native β-barrel scaffold

One persistent challenge in membrane protein design is accomplishing extensive modifications of proteins without impairing their functionality. A truncation derivative of the ferric hydroxamate uptake component A (FhuA), which featured the deletion of the 160-residue cork domain and five large extracellular loops, produced the conversion of a non-conductive, monomeric, 22-stranded β-barrel protein into a large-conductance protein pore. Here, we show that this redesigned β-barrel protein tolerates an extensive alteration in the internal surface charge, encompassing 25 negative charge neutralizations. By using single-molecule electrophysiology, we noted that a commonality of various truncation FhuA protein pores was the occurrence of 33% blockades of the unitary current at very high transmembrane potentials. We determined that these current transitions were stimulated by their interaction with an external cationic polypeptide, which occurred in a fashion dependent on the surface charge of the pore interior as well as the polypeptide characteristics. This study shows promise for extensive engineering of a large monomeric β-barrel protein pore in molecular biomedical diagnosis, therapeutics, and biosensor technology.

Quasithermodynamic contributions to the fluctuations of a protein nanopore

Proteins undergo thermally activated conformational fluctuations among two or more substates, but a quantitative inquiry on their kinetics is persistently challenged by numerous factors, including the complexity and dynamics of various interactions, along with the inability to detect functional substates within a resolvable time scale. Here, we analyzed in detail the current fluctuations of a monomeric β-barrel protein nanopore of known high-resolution X-ray crystal structure. We demonstrated that targeted perturbations of the protein nanopore system, in the form of loop-deletion mutagenesis, accompanying alterations of electrostatic interactions between long extracellular loops, produced modest changes of the differential activation free energies calculated at 25 °C, ΔΔG(⧧), in the range near the thermal energy but substantial and correlated modifications of the differential activation enthalpies, ΔΔH(⧧), and entropies, ΔΔS(⧧). This finding indicates that the local conformational reorganizations of the packing and flexibility of the fluctuating loops lining the central constriction of this protein nanopore were supplemented by changes in the single-channel kinetics. These changes were reflected in the enthalpy-entropy reconversions of the interactions between the loop partners with a compensating temperature, TC, of ∼300 K, and an activation free energy constant of ∼41 kJ/mol. We also determined that temperature has a much greater effect on the energetics of the equilibrium gating fluctuations of a protein nanopore than other environmental parameters, such as the ionic strength of the aqueous phase as well as the applied transmembrane potential, likely due to ample changes in the solvation activation enthalpies. There is no fundamental limitation for applying this approach to other complex, multistate membrane protein systems. Therefore, this methodology has major implications in the area of membrane protein design and dynamics, primarily by revealing a better quantitative assessment on the equilibrium transitions among multiple well-defined and functionally distinct substates of protein channels and pores.

Detection of two isomeric binding configurations in a protein-aptamer complex with a biological nanopore

Protein-DNA interactions play critical roles in biological systems, and they often involve complex mechanisms and dynamics that are not easily measured by ensemble experiments. Recently, we showed that folded proteins can be internalized inside ClyA nanopores and studied by ionic current recordings at the single-molecule level. Here, we use ClyA nanopores to sample the interaction between the G-quadruplex fold of the thrombin binding aptamer (TBA) and human thrombin (HT). Surprisingly, the internalization of the HT:TBA complex inside the nanopore induced two types of current blockades with distinguished residual current and lifetime. Using single nucleobase substitutions to TBA we showed that these two types of blockades originate from TBA binding to thrombin with two isomeric orientations. Voltage dependencies and the use of ClyA nanopores with two different diameters allowed assessing the effect of the applied potential and confinement and revealed that the two binding configurations of TBA to HT display different lifetimes. These results show that the ClyA nanopores can be used to probe conformational heterogeneity in protein:DNA interactions.

Evidence of unfolded protein translocation through a protein nanopore

Protein nanopores are mainly used to study transport, unfolding, intrinsically disordered proteins, protein-pore interactions, and protein-ligand complexes. This single-molecule sensor for biomedical and biotechnological applications is promising but until now direct proof of protein translocation through a narrow channel is lacking. Here, we report the translocation of a chimera molecule through the aerolysin nanopore in the presence of a denaturing agent, guanidium chloride (1.5 M) and KCl (1 M). The chimera molecule is composed of the recombinant MalE protein with a unique cysteine residue at the C-terminal position covalently linked to a single-stranded DNA oligonucleotide. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect the presence of chimera molecules that have been effectively translocated from the cis to trans chamber of the set up. Comparing the electrical signature of the chimera related to the protein or oligonucleotide alone demonstrates that each type of molecule displays different dynamics in term of transport time, event frequency, and current blockade. This original approach provides the possibility to study protein translocation through different biological, artificial, and biomimetic nanopores or nanotubes. New future applications are now conceivable such as protein refolding at the nanopore exit, peptides and protein sequencing, and peptide characterization for diagnostics.

Alpha-synuclein lipid-dependent membrane binding and translocation through the α-hemolysin channel

Gauging the interactions of a natively unfolded Parkinson disease-related protein, alpha-synuclein (α-syn) with membranes and its pathways between and within cells is important for understanding its pathogenesis. Here, to address these questions, we use a robust β-barrel channel, α-hemolysin, reconstituted into planar lipid bilayers. Transient, ~95% blockage of the channel current by α-syn was observed when 1), α-syn was added from the membrane side where the shorter (stem) part of the channel is exposed; and 2), the applied potential was lower on the side of α-syn addition. While the on-rate of α-syn binding to the channel strongly increased with the applied field, the off-rate displayed a turnover behavior. Statistical analysis suggests that at voltages >50 mV, a significant fraction of the α-syn molecules bound to the channel undergoes subsequent translocation. The observed on-rate varied by >100 times depending on the bilayer lipid composition. Removal of the last 25 amino acids from the highly negatively charged C-terminal of α-syn resulted in a significant decrease in the binding rates. Taken together, these results demonstrate that β-barrel channels may serve as sensitive probes of α-syn interactions with membranes as well as model systems for studies of channel-assisted protein transport.

Channel-forming bacterial toxins in biosensing and macromolecule delivery

To intoxicate cells, pore-forming bacterial toxins are evolved to allow for the transmembrane traffic of different substrates, ranging from small inorganic ions to cell-specific polypeptides. Recent developments in single-channel electrical recordings, X-ray crystallography, protein engineering, and computational methods have generated a large body of knowledge about the basic principles of channel-mediated molecular transport. These discoveries provide a robust framework for expansion of the described principles and methods toward use of biological nanopores in the growing field of nanobiotechnology. This article, written for a special volume on "Intracellular Traffic and Transport of Bacterial Protein Toxins", reviews the current state of applications of pore-forming bacterial toxins in small- and macromolecule-sensing, targeted cancer therapy, and drug delivery. We discuss the electrophysiological studies that explore molecular details of channel-facilitated protein and polymer transport across cellular membranes using both natural and foreign substrates. The review focuses on the structurally and functionally different bacterial toxins: gramicidin A of Bacillus brevis, α-hemolysin of Staphylococcus aureus, and binary toxin of Bacillus anthracis, which have found their "second life" in a variety of developing medical and technological applications.

Watching single proteins using engineered nanopores

Recent studies in the area of single-molecule detection of proteins with nanopores show a great promise in fundamental science, bionanotechnology and proteomics. In this mini-review, I discuss a comprehensive array of examinations of protein detection and characterization using protein and solid-state nanopores. These investigations demonstrate the power of the single-molecule nanopore measurements to reveal a broad range of functional, structural, biochemical and biophysical features of proteins, such as their backbone flexibility, enzymatic activity, binding affinity as well as their concentration, size and folding state. Engineered nanopores in organic materials and in inorganic membranes coupled with surface modification and protein engineering might provide a new generation of sensing devices for molecular biomedical diagnostics.

Through the eye of the needle: recent advances in understanding biopolymer translocation

In recent years polymer translocation, i.e., transport of polymeric molecules through nanometer-sized pores and channels embedded in membranes, has witnessed strong advances. It is now possible to observe single-molecule polymer dynamics during the motion through channels with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. These striking experimental studies have stimulated many theoretical developments. In this short theory-experiment review, we discuss recent progress in this field with a strong focus on non-equilibrium aspects of polymer dynamics during the translocation process.

Tuning the size and properties of ClyA nanopores assisted by directed evolution

Nanopores have recently emerged as powerful tools in single-molecule investigations. Biological nanopores, however, have drawbacks, including a fixed size and limited stability in lipid bilayers. Inspired by the great success of directed evolution approaches in tailoring enzyme properties, in this work we evolved Cytolysin A from Salmonella typhi (ClyA) to a high level of soluble expression and desired electrical properties in lipid bilayers. Evolved ClyA nanopores remained open up to -150 mV applied potential, which allowed the detailed characterization of folded proteins by ionic current recordings. Remarkably, we also found that ClyA forms several nanopore species; among which we could isolate and characterize three nanopore types most likely corresponding to the 12mer, 13mer, and 14mer oligomeric forms of ClyA. Protein current blockades to the three ClyA nanopores showed that subnanometer variations in the diameter of nanopores greatly affect the recognition of analyte proteins.

Sampling a biomarker of the human immunodeficiency virus across a synthetic nanopore

One primary goal in nanobiotechnology is designing new methodologies for molecular biomedical diagnosis at stages much earlier than currently possible and without use of expensive reagents and sophisticated equipment. In this work, we show the proof of principle for single-molecule detection of the nucleocapsid protein 7 (NCp7), a protein biomarker of the HIV-1 virus, using synthetic nanopores and the resistive-pulse technique. The biosensing mechanism relied upon specific interactions between NCp7 and aptamers of stem-loop 3 (SL3) in the packaging domain of the retroviral RNA genome. One critical step of this study was the choice of the optimal size of the nanopores for accurate, label-free determinations of the dissociation constant of the NCp7 protein-SL3 RNA aptamer complex. Therefore, we systematically investigated the NCp7 protein-SL3 RNA aptamer complex employing two categories of nanopores in a silicon nitride membrane: (i) small, whose internal diameter was smaller than 6 nm, and (ii) large, whose internal diameter was in the range of 7 to 15 nm. Here, we demonstrate that only the use of nanopores with an internal diameter that is smaller than or comparable with the largest cross-sectional size of the NCp7-SL3 aptamer complex enables accurate measurement of the dissociation constant between the two interacting partners. Notably, this determination can be accomplished without the need for prior nanopore functionalization. Moreover, using small solid-state nanopores, we demonstrate the ability to detect drug candidates that inhibit the binding interactions between NCp7 and SL3 RNA by using a test case of N-ethylmaleimide.

Single-particle characterization of Aβ oligomers in solution

Determining the pathological role of amyloids in amyloid-associated diseases will require a method for characterizing the dynamic distributions in size and shape of amyloid oligomers with high resolution. Here, we explored the potential of resistive-pulse sensing through lipid bilayer-coated nanopores to measure the size of individual amyloid-β oligomers directly in solution and without chemical modification. This method classified individual amyloid-β aggregates as spherical oligomers, protofibrils, or mature fibers and made it possible to account for the large heterogeneity of amyloid-β aggregate sizes. The approach revealed the distribution of protofibrillar lengths (12- to 155 -mer) as well as the average cross-sectional area of protofibrils and fibers.

Cation selectivity is a conserved feature in the OccD subfamily of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

To achieve the uptake of small, water-soluble nutrients, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a pathogenic Gram-negative bacterium, employs substrate-specific channels located within its outer membrane. In this paper, we present a detailed description of the single-channel characteristics of six members of the outer membrane carboxylate channel D (OccD) subfamily. Recent structural studies showed that the OccD proteins share common features, such as a closely related, monomeric, 18-stranded β-barrel conformation and large extracellular loops, which are folded back into the channel lumen. Here, we report that the OccD proteins displayed single-channel activity with a unitary conductance covering an unusually broad range, between 20 and 670pS, as well as a diverse gating dynamics. Interestingly, we found that cation selectivity is a conserved trait among all members of the OccD subfamily, bringing a new distinction between the members of the OccD subfamily and the anion-selective OccK channels. Conserved cation selectivity of the OccD channels is in accord with an increased specificity and selectivity of these proteins for positively charged, carboxylate-containing substrates.

An outer membrane protein undergoes enthalpy- and entropy-driven transitions

β-Barrel membrane proteins often fluctuate among various open substates, yet the nature of these transitions is not fully understood. Using temperature-dependent, single-molecule electrophysiology analysis, along with rational protein design, we show that OccK1, a member of the outer membrane carboxylate channel from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, features a discrete gating dynamics comprising both enthalpy-driven and entropy-driven current transitions. OccK1 was chosen for the analysis of these transitions, because it is a monomeric transmembrane β-barrel of a known high-resolution crystal structure and displays three distinguishable, time-resolvable open substates. Native and loop-deletion OccK1 proteins showed substantial changes in the activation enthalpies and entropies of the channel transitions, but modest alterations in the equilibrium free energies, confirming that the system never departs from equilibrium. Moreover, some current fluctuations of OccK1 indicated a counterintuitive, negative activation enthalpy, which was compensated by a significant decrease in the activation entropy. Temperature scanning of the single-channel properties of OccK1 exhibited a thermally induced switch of the energetically most favorable open substate at the lowest examined temperature of 4 °C. Therefore, such a semiquantitative assessment of the current fluctuation dynamics not only demonstrates the complexity of channel gating but also reveals distinct functional traits of a β-barrel outer membrane protein under different temperature circumstances.

Nanopore analysis: An emerging technique for studying the folding and misfolding of proteins

Nanopore analysis is an emerging technique that enables the investigation of the conformation of a single peptide or protein molecule. Briefly, a pore is inserted into a membrane under voltage clamp conditions. When a molecule interacts with the pore there is a change in the current, I, for a time, T. Small unfolded molecules can translocate the pore whereas folded or large molecules tend to simply bump into the pore and then diffuse away. Therefore, the parameters, I and T, are dependent on the conformation of the molecule at the instant at which it encounters the pore. Thus, multiple conformations can be detected simultaneously in a single sample. As well, the analysis can be performed under dilute conditions so that folding or dimerization of a peptide can be followed in real time, which is generally difficult to study for proteins that are prone to aggregate. In this report, we describe our initial analysis of (1) Aβ peptides, which are deposited as amyloid plaques in Alzheimer disease, (2) α-synuclein, which is implicated in Parkinson disease and (3) prion proteins whose misfolding is evident in transmissable spongiform encephalopathies. In each case conformational information can be obtained which may help in understanding the early steps in the misfolding pathways.

OccK channels from Pseudomonas aeruginosa exhibit diverse single-channel electrical signatures but conserved anion selectivity

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram-negative bacterium that utilizes substrate-specific outer membrane (OM) proteins for the uptake of small, water-soluble nutrients employed in the growth and function of the cell. In this paper, we present for the first time a comprehensive single-channel examination of seven members of the OM carboxylate channel K (OccK) subfamily. Recent biochemical, functional, and structural characterization of the OccK proteins revealed their common features, such as a closely related, monomeric, 18-stranded β-barrel conformation with a kidney-shaped transmembrane pore and the presence of a basic ladder within the channel lumen. Here, we report that the OccK proteins exhibited fairly distinct unitary conductance values, in a much broader range than previously expected, which includes low (~40-100 pS) and medium (~100-380 pS) conductance. These proteins showed diverse single-channel dynamics of current gating transitions, revealing one-open substate (OccK3), two-open substate (OccK4-OccK6), and three-open substate (OccK1, OccK2, and OccK7) kinetics with functionally distinct conformations. Interestingly, we discovered that anion selectivity is a conserved trait among the members of the OccK subfamily, confirming the presence of a net pool of positively charged residues within their central constriction. Moreover, these results are in accord with an increased specificity and selectivity of these protein channels for negatively charged, carboxylate-containing substrates. Our findings might ignite future functional examinations and full atomistic computational studies for unraveling a mechanistic understanding of the passage of small molecules across the lumen of substrate-specific, β-barrel OM proteins.

Protein translocation through Tom40: kinetics of peptide release

Mitochondrial proteins are almost exclusively imported into mitochondria from the cytosol in an unfolded or partially folded conformation. Regardless of whether they are destined for the outer or inner membrane, the intermembrane space, or the matrix, proteins begin the importation process by crossing the mitochondrial outer membrane via a specialized protein import machinery whose main component is the Tom40 channel. High-resolution ion conductance measurements through the Tom40 channel in the presence of the mitochondrial presequence peptide pF(1)β revealed the kinetics of peptide binding. Here we show that the rates for association k(on) and dissociation k(off) strongly depend on the applied transmembrane voltage. Both kinetic constants increase with an increase in the applied voltage. The increase of k(off) with voltage provides strong evidence of peptide translocation. This allows us to distinguish quantitatively between substrate blocking and permeation.

Translocation of single-stranded DNA through the α-hemolysin protein nanopore in acidic solutions

The effect of acidic pH on the translocation of single-stranded DNA through the α-hemolysin pore is investigated. Two significantly different types of events, i.e. deep blockades and shallow blockades, are observed at low pH. The residence times of the shallow blockades are not significantly different from those of the DNA translocation events obtained at or near physiological pH, whereas the deep blockades have much larger residence times and blockage amplitudes. With a decrease in the pH of the electrolyte solution, the percentage of the deep blockades in the total events increases. Furthermore, the mean residence time of these long-lived events is dependent on the length of DNA, and also varies with the nucleotide base, suggesting that they are appropriate for use in DNA analysis. In addition to being used as an effective approach to affect DNA translocation in the nanopore, manipulation of the pH of the electrolyte solution provides a potential means to greatly enhance the sensitivity of nanopore stochastic sensing.

Analysis of gating transitions among the three major open states of the OpdK channel

OpdK is an outer membrane protein of the pathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The recent crystal structure of this protein revealed a monomeric, 18-stranded β-barrel with a kidney-shaped pore, whose constriction features a diameter of 8 Å. Using systematic single-channel electrical recordings of this protein pore reconstituted into planar lipid bilayers under a broad range of ion concentrations, we were able to probe its discrete gating kinetics involving three major and functionally distinct conformations, in which a dominant open substate O(2) is accompanied by less thermodynamically stable substates O(1) and O(3). Single-channel electrical data enabled us to determine the alterations in the energetics and kinetics of the OpdK protein when experimental conditions were changed. In the future, such a semiquantitative analysis might provide a better understanding on the dynamics of current fluctuations of other β-barrel membrane protein channels.

Redesign of a plugged beta-barrel membrane protein

The redesign of biological nanopores is focused on bacterial outer membrane proteins and pore-forming toxins, because their robust β-barrel structure makes them the best choice for developing stochastic biosensing elements. Using membrane protein engineering and single-channel electrical recordings, we explored the ferric hydroxamate uptake component A (FhuA), a monomeric 22-stranded β-barrel protein from the outer membrane of Escherichia coli. FhuA has a luminal cross-section of 3.1 × 4.4 nm and is filled by a globular N-terminal cork domain. Various redesigned FhuA proteins were investigated, including single, double, and multiple deletions of the large extracellular loops and the cork domain. We identified four large extracellular loops that partially occlude the lumen when the cork domain is removed. The newly engineered protein, FhuAΔC/Δ4L, was the result of a removal of almost one-third of the total number of amino acids of the wild-type FhuA (WT-FhuA) protein. This extensive protein engineering encompassed the entire cork domain and four extracellular loops. Remarkably, FhuAΔC/Δ4L forms a functional open pore in planar lipid bilayers, with a measured unitary conductance of ∼4.8 nanosiemens, which is much greater than the values recorded previously with other engineered FhuA protein channels. There are numerous advantages and prospects of using such an engineered outer membrane protein not only in fundamental studies of membrane protein folding and design, and the mechanisms of ion conductance and gating, but also in more applicative areas of stochastic single-molecule sensing of proteins and nucleic acids.