Glutaraldehyde has been used for several decades as an effective crosslinking agent for many applications including sample fixation for microscopy, enzyme and cell immobilization, and stabilization of protein crystals. Despite of its common use as a crosslinking agent, the mechanism and chemistry involved in glutaraldehyde crosslinking reaction is not yet fully understood. Here we describe feasibility study and results obtained from a new approach to investigate the process of protein crystals stabilization by glutaraldehyde crosslinking. It involves exposure of a model protein crystal (Lysozyme) to glutaraldehyde in alkaline or acidic pH for different incubation periods and reaction arrest by medium exchange with crystallization medium to remove unbound glutaraldehyde. The crystals were subsequently incubated in diluted buffer affecting dissolution of un-crosslinked crystals. Samples from the resulting solution were subjected to protein composition analysis by gel electrophoresis and mass spectroscopy while crosslinked, dissolution resistant crystals were subjected to high resolution X-ray structural analysis. Data from gel electrophoresis indicated that the crosslinking process starts at specific preferable crosslinking site by lysozyme dimer formation, for both acidic and alkaline pH values. These dimer formations were followed by trimer and tetramer formations leading eventually to dissolution resistant crystals. The crosslinking initiation site and the end products obtained from glutaraldehyde crosslinking in both pH ranges resulted from reactions between lysine residues of neighboring protein molecules and the polymeric form of glutaraldehyde. Reaction rate was much faster at alkaline pH. Different reaction end products, indicating different reaction mechanisms, were identified for crosslinking taking place under alkaline or acidic conditions.

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Protein crystals, routinely prepared for the elucidation of protein 3D structures by X-ray crystallography, present an ordered and highly accurate 3D array of protein molecules. Inherent to the 3D arrangement of the protein molecules in the crystal is a complementary 3D array of voids made of interconnected cavities and exhibiting highly ordered porosity. The permeability of the porosity of chemically crosslinked enzyme protein crystals to low molecular weight solutes, was used for enzyme mediated organic synthesis and size exclusion chromatography. This permeability might be extended to explore new potential applications for protein crystals, for example, their use as bio-templates for the fabrication of novel, nano-structured composite materials. The quality of composites obtained from "filling" of the ordered voids in protein crystals and their potential applications will be strongly dependent upon an accurate preservation of the order in the original protein crystal 3D array during the "filling" process. Here we propose and demonstrate the feasibility of monitoring the changes in 3D order of the protein array by a step-by-step molecular level monitoring of a model system for hydrogel bio-templating by glutaraldehyde crosslinked lysozyme crystals. This monitoring is based on step-by-step comparative analysis of data obtained from (i) X-ray crystallography: resolution, unit cell dimensions and B-factor values and (ii) fluorescence decay kinetics of ultra-fast laser activated dye, impregnated within these crystals. Our results demonstrated feasibility of the proposed monitoring approach and confirmed that the stabilized protein crystal template retained its 3D structure throughout the process.

Directed deposition of silver on the surface of single, soluble enzyme molecules was made possible by controlled conjugation of new silver-reducing moieties to the surface of the enzyme molecule and their reaction with silver ions. Molecular enzyme-silver hybrids carrying low or high crystalline silver deposited on their surface were obtained, retaining their solubility and enzymatic activity. The feasibility of "wiring" of the active site of glucose oxidase-silver hybrid thus obtained to platinum electrode was readily demonstrated enabling glucose determination in the absence of oxygen.Electroless deposition of metals has many applications in fabrication on the basis of micro-and nanotechnologies, for example, interconnects and packaging affected by Cu, Co, Ni, and Ag high-quality ultrathin films, deposited on solid substrates. 1 In recent years, several attempts were made to adopt electroless deposition technologies practiced in the microelectronics industry for the fabrication of new hybrids made of biological templates, for example, DNA and protein arrays for the synthesis of interconnects. Within this context, metallization by electroless deposition of protein-made natural arrays was recently successfully demonstrated for the fabrication of nanowires from microtubules, 2-6 viral envelopes, 7-9 amyloid fibers, 10 and actin. 11 These metallizations were directed to the substrate's surface by the adsorption of palladium or platinum ions followed by their chemical reduction 2-5,7-9 or by surface labeling with colloidal gold particles. 10,11 Enlargement of the nucleation sites thus obtained into continuously deposited metallic films was carried out by immersion in plating solution containing the metal ions of choice such as Ag +1 or Ni +2 and reducing agents such as NaBH 4 or dimethylaminoborane. This nucleation/growth mechanism led to the formation of relatively thick metal deposits, for example, 10-35 nm. 4 Here, we propose and demonstrate feasibility of a novel mechanism for directing silver metallization to the surface of single, soluble enzyme molecule, enabling the construction of a very thin metallic film on its surface, with retention of its biological activity and solubility. Such soluble hybrids of active enzymes are expected to provide novel molecular tools for applications requiring "wiring" of nanosized sensors to electrodes and composite biochips. 12 The new method is based on coupling of a reducing agent to the surface of soluble enzyme molecules, followed by removal of nonbound reducer. Addition of ion metals will lead to the formation of nucleation sites accompanied by local growth leading to the formation of metallic "patches". The density and continuity of these patches may be controlled by the density of the reducing moieties, displayed on the surface of the enzyme as monolayered or multilayered arrays. This process should result in the formation of metallic coating stretching out close enough to the catalytic site of the enzyme without blocking it to substrate access.The enzyme selected for f...

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Bioinspired nano-scale biotemplating for the development of novel composite materials has recently culminated in several demonstrations of nano-structured hybrid materials. Protein crystals, routinely prepared for the elucidation of protein 3D structures by X-ray crystallography, present an ordered and highly accurate 3D array of protein molecules. Inherent to the 3D arrangement of the protein "building blocks" in the crystal, a complementary 3D array of interconnected cavities--voids array, exhibiting highly ordered porosity is formed. The porous arrays of protein crystal may serve as a nano-structured, accurate biotemplate by a "filling" process. These cavities arrays are shaped by the mode of protein packing throughout the crystallization process. Here we propose and demonstrate feasibility of targeting site specific mutations to modify protein's surface to affect protein crystal packing, enabling the generation of a series of protein crystal "biotemplates" all originating from same parent protein. The selection of these modification sites was based on in silico analysis of protein-protein interface contact areas in the parent crystal. The model protein selected for this study was the N-terminal type II cohesin from the cellulosomal scaffold in ScaB subunit of Acetivibrio cellulolyticus and mutations were focused on lysine residues involved in protein packing as prime target. The impact of systematically mutating these lysine residues on protein packing and its resulting interconnected cavities array were found to be most significant when surface lysine residues were substituted to tryptophan residues. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of using pre-designed site directed mutations for the generation of a series of protein crystal biotemplates from a "parent" protein.

Protein crystals are routinely prepared for the elucidation of protein structure by X-ray crystallography. These crystals present an highly accurate periodical array of protein molecules with accompanying highly ordered porosity made of interconnected voids. The permeability of the porous protein crystals to a wide range of solutes has recently triggered attempts to explore their potential application as biotemplates by a controlled "filling" process for the fabrication of novel, nano-structured composite materials. Gaining control of the porosity of a given protein crystal may lead to the preparation of a series of "biotemplates" enabling different 'filler'/protein content ratios, resulting in different nanostructured composites. One way to gain such control is to produce a series of polymorphic forms of a given "parent-protein" crystal. As protein packing throughout crystallization is primarily dominated by the chemical composition of the surface of protein molecules and its impact on protein-protein interactions, modification of residues exposed on the surface will affect protein packing, leading to modified porosity. Here we propose to provide influence on the porosity of protein crystals for biotemplating by pre-crystallization chemical modification of lysine residues exposed on protein's surface. The feasibility of this approach was demonstrated by the serial application of chemical "modifiers" leading to protein derivatives exhibiting altered porosity by affecting protein "packing" throughout protein crystallization. Screening of a series of modifying agents for lysine modification of hen egg white lysozyme revealed that pre-crystallization modification preserving their positive charge did not affect crystal porosity, while modification resulting in their conversion to negatively charged groups induced dramatic change in protein crystal's packing and porosity. Furthermore, we demonstrate that chemical modification of lysine residues affecting modified protein packing may be simultaneously performed with the crystallization process: aldehydes generating Schiff base formation with protein's lysine residues readily affected modified protein packing, resulting in altered porosity. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of the use of site directed chemical modifications for the generation of a series of protein crystal exhibiting different porosities for biotemplating, all derived from one "parent" protein.

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