A responsive living material prepared by diffusion reveals extracellular enzyme activity of cyanobacteria.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40310460.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1073/pnas.2424405122 and PMC identifier 12067278.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Stimuli-responsive engineered living materials (ELMs) can respond to environmental or biochemical cues and have broad utility in biological sensors and machines, but have traditionally been limited to biocompatible scaffolds. This is because they are typically made by mixing cells into a precursor solution before crosslinking. Here, we demonstrate a diffusion mechanism for incorporating cells of the cyanobacterium <i>Synechococcus elongatus</i> sp. PCC 7942 (<i>S. elongatus</i>) into nanoclay-poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (NC-PNIPAm), a hydrogel with a cytotoxic precursor, by exploiting its temperature-dependent shape-morphing behavior. Subsequent growth of <i>S. elongatus</i> caused a decrease in the bending curvature and stiffness (local Young's modulus) of NC-PNIPAm due to partial degradation by an unannotated enzyme. Creation and observation of this cyanobacteria-hydrogel ELM showcases a method for diffusing cells into a hydrogel as well as characterizing an extracellular enzyme.
Medical subject headings
- Synechococcus