Metalloproteins: structure and function-Metalloprotein manipulation for metal biosensors and bio-recovery

摘要

State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Institute of Chemistry and BioMedical Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, People's Republic of China Heavy metal pollution has become an increasing global environmental concern. Considerable efforts have thus focused on developing facile approaches for heavy metal remediation. By studying metalloproteins, especially MerR family proteins from bacteria, we reported the development of a whole-cell based gold biosensor that allows the selective detection of gold ions by naked-eyes. Furthermore, a bacterial surface display system was engineered for the enrichment and recovery of gold ions via a newly identified gold(I)-specific binding protein. Such systems are advantageous over conventional methods in terms of sensitivity, robustness and reusability [1].