c Mussels attach to virtually all types of inorganic and organic surfaces in aqueous environments, and catecholamines composed of 3,4-dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine (DOPA), lysine, and histidine in mussel adhesive proteins play a key role in the robust adhesion. DOPA is an unusual catecholic amino acid, and its side chain is called catechol. In this study, we displayed the adhesive moiety of DOPA-histidine on Escherichia coli surfaces using outer membrane protein W as an anchoring motif for the first time. Localization of catecholamines on the cell surface was confirmed by Western blot and immunofluorescence microscopy. Furthermore, cell-to-cell cohesion (i.e., cellular aggregation) induced by the displayed catecholamine and synthesis of gold nanoparticles on the cell surface support functional display of adhesive catecholamines. The engineered E. coli exhibited significant adhesion onto various material surfaces, including silica and glass microparticles, gold, titanium, silicon, poly(ethylene terephthalate), poly(urethane), and poly(dimethylsiloxane). The uniqueness of this approach utilizing the engineered sticky E. coli is that no chemistry for cell attachment are necessary, and the ability of spontaneous E. coli attachment allows one to immobilize the cells on challenging material surfaces such as synthetic polymers. Therefore, we envision that mussel-inspired catecholamine yielded sticky E. coli that can be used as a new type of engineered microbe for various emerging fields, such as whole living cell attachment on versatile material surfaces, cell-to-cell communication systems, and many others.
Microbial cell attachment is a crucial process in the overall efficiency of a variety of systems that exploits the whole microbial cell, such as biocatalysts (1-9) or biosensors (10). Existing methods of attaching microbial cells to surfaces utilize various chemistries, such as adsorption (11), covalent attachment (12, 13), and entrapment within matrices (13, 14). However, adsorption often results in the detachment of bacteria due to the weak bond with the substrates, and covalent coupling requires crosslinking agents which results in the loss of cell activity and viability. The entrapment process requires harsh conditions in some cases, which jeopardizes cellular activity and viability. Another important issue is that the types of materials that the conventional methods can be applied to are largely limited due to the available surface chemistry. Therefore, cell attachment to variety of material surfaces without surface modification or harsh chemical treatment remains a great challenge. The facile cell attachment would circumvent the complex chemical modifications and reduce the loss of cellular activity and viability of the whole cell.As an emerging method for cell attachment, engineered cells expressing binding affinity tags on the cell surfaces through display technology have been utilized, although the approach is not prevalent. Cell surface display allows peptides and proteins to be displayed on the surfaces of mi...