title: Mechanism-oriented controllability of intracellular quantum dots formation: the role of glutathione metabolic pathway.
abstract: Microbial cells have shown a great potential to biosynthesize inorganic nanoparticles within their orderly regulated intracellular environment. However, very little is known about the mechanism of nanoparticle biosynthesis. Therefore, it is difficult to control intracellular synthesis through the manipulation of biological processes. Here, we present a mechanism-oriented strategy for controlling the biosynthesis of fluorescent CdSe quantum dots (QDs) by means of metabolic engineering in yeast cells. Using genetic techniques, we demonstrated that the glutathione metabolic pathway controls the intracellular CdSe QD formation. Inspired from this mechanism, the controllability of CdSe QD yield was realized through engineering the glutathione metabolism in genetically modified yeast cells. The yeast cells were homogeneously transformed into more efficient cell-factories at the single-cell level, providing a specific way to direct the cellular metabolism toward CdSe QD formation. This work could provide the foundation for the future development of nanomaterial biosynthesis.
authors: Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan 430072, P. R. China.
authors: Yong
authors: Y
authors: Li
authors: Ran
authors: R
authors: Cui
authors: Peng
authors: P
authors: Zhang
authors: Bei-Bei
authors: BB
authors: Chen
authors: Zhi-Quan
authors: ZQ
authors: Tian
authors: Li
authors: L
authors: Li
authors: Bin
authors: B
authors: Hu
authors: Dai-Wen
authors: DW
authors: Pang
authors: Zhi-Xiong
authors: ZX
authors: Xie
mesh_terms: D019187:Cadmium Compounds / Q000378:metabolism; D005721:Glutamate-Cysteine Ligase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005978:Glutathione / Q000378:metabolism*; D060847:Metabolic Engineering; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D036103:Nanotechnology; D045663:Quantum Dots; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018036:Selenium Compounds / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D019187:Cadmium Compounds; C508746:GLR1 protein, S cerevisiae; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D018036:Selenium Compounds; C058667:cadmium selenide; C490862:GSH1 protein, S cerevisiae; D005721:Glutamate-Cysteine Ligase; D005978:Glutathione