Sep 2026· ACS Chemical Biology· Vol 21, pp. 2662-2674· 0 citations· 41 references
Medicine
TL;DR
These findings establish operon architecture as a programmable genetic framework for nanostructure morphogenesis and provide a synthetic biology strategy to engineer self-assembling nanodevices with customized geometries and activities.
Abstract
Gene order is a powerful design principle for protein nanomachines. In nature, gene organization ensures the precise assembly of functional protein nanostructures. We demonstrate how the genetic repositioning of the key structural gene pduN within the operon encoding a self-assembling protein nanocompartment sculpts the morphology and function of bacterial microcompartments (BMCs). Relocating pduN to new operonic positions dramatically altered the size, shape, and catalytic output of BMCs, despite identical protein sequences. These shifts reveal how gene order may control nanoscale assembly and compartmentalized function. Our findings establish operon architecture as a programmable genetic framework for nanostructure morphogenesis and provide a synthetic biology strategy to engineer self-assembling nanodevices with customized geometries and activities.
Ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granules are biomolecular condensates composed of RNAs and RNA-binding proteins that help organize gene expression, small RNA pathways, and genome surveillance. Recent studies have shown that germline RNP granules in Caenorhabditis elegans are not uniform structures; instead, they comprise multi...
Liang-Tao Chen, Ke-Qing Wang· Biochemistry and cell biolog...· 0 citations
Flagella, the major motility organelles in bacteria, display great diversity and complexity in their motor structures. Aside from the classical model with a simple motor, the functions of the components of complex motors are beginning to be explored. Recently, flagellar motors in Campylobacterota were found to have hom...
Xue-Yin Feng, Yida Huang, Yan-Ran Liu et al.· TIBS -Trends in Biochemical...· 0 citations
DNA nanotechnology offers architectures ranging from compact motifs to scaffolded origami, with trade-offs in structural complexity, addressability, and component economy. Here, we translate Leonardo da Vinci’s mazzocchio geometry into a programmable DNA assembly. Twenty distinct DNA strands hierarchically assemble i...
S. C. Shiu, Hannah Talbot, Marcello DeLuca et al.· Nano letters (Print)· 0 citations
Abstract The minute-scale lifetime of mRNA strongly influences bacterial gene expression, whereas a robust and programmable approach to directly control the mRNA stability and topology remains elusive. Here, we develop CRESEnT (Circular RNA Expression for Stable and Enhanced Translation), a programmable in vivo mRNA ci...
Seongjun Park, G. Kim, M. H. Kim et al.· Nucleic Acids Research· 0 citations
Abstract The three-dimensional organization of the bacterial chromosome is critical for gene regulation. Chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) has enabled genome-wide mapping of chromosomal folding, yet ensemble-averaged contact maps entangle biologically specific-folding interactions (SFIs) with nonspecific polymer c...
Pourya Delafrouz, Tanya Nesterova, Frances E. Harris et al.· Nucleic Acids Research· 0 citations
Firmicutes are gram-positive bacteria with important roles in human health, disease, and industry. However, more than a quarter of genes in the model firmicute Bacillus subtilis remain completely uncharacterized, including numerous core phylum-specific genes. Here, we design a compact pooled CRISPRi library targeting a...
Lili M. Kim, B. Koo, Hannah N. Burkhart et al.· bioRxiv· 1 citation
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