title: Strong underwater adhesives made by self-assembling multi-protein nanofibres.
abstract: Many natural underwater adhesives harness hierarchically assembled amyloid nanostructures to achieve strong and robust interfacial adhesion under dynamic and turbulent environments. Despite recent advances, our understanding of the molecular design, self-assembly and structure-function relationships of these natural amyloid fibres remains limited. Thus, designing biomimetic amyloid-based adhesives remains challenging. Here, we report strong and multi-functional underwater adhesives obtained from fusing mussel foot proteins (Mfps) of Mytilus galloprovincialis with CsgA proteins, the major subunit of Escherichia coli amyloid curli fibres. These hybrid molecular materials hierarchically self-assemble into higher-order structures, in which, according to molecular dynamics simulations, disordered adhesive Mfp domains are exposed on the exterior of amyloid cores formed by CsgA. Our fibres have an underwater adhesion energy approaching 20.9 mJ m(-2), which is 1.5 times greater than the maximum of bio-inspired and bio-derived protein-based underwater adhesives reported thus far. Moreover, they outperform Mfps or curli fibres taken on their own and exhibit better tolerance to auto-oxidation than Mfps at pH ≥ 7.0.
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA [2] Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA [3] Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.identifier: 0000000266383652
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA [2] Computational and Systems Biology Initiative, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gurry
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA [2] Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA [3] Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA.
authors.forename: Allen A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA [2] Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA.
authors.forename: Jordan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Downey
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA [2] Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA [3] Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA.
authors.forename: Zhengtao
authors.identifier: 0000000284288982
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA [2] Computational and Systems Biology Initiative, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA [3] The Institute of Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA.
authors.forename: Collin M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Stultz
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA [2] Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA [3] Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA [4] Computational and Systems Biology Initiative, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307, USA.
authors.forename: Timothy K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000268:Adhesiveness; D000269:Adhesives / Q000737:chemistry*; D000818:Animals; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008958:Models, Molecular; D049878:Mytilus / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000648:ultrastructure; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000648:ultrastructure; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000269:Adhesives; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D011506:Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; C037403:adhesive protein, mussel; C489688:csgA protein, E coli; D014867:Water