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Engineering bacteria to control electron transport altering the synthesis of non-native polymer

Bennett, Mechelle R.; Jain, Akhil; Kovacs, Katalin; Hill, Phil J.; Alexander, Cameron; Rawson, Frankie J.

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Authors

Mechelle R. Bennett

AKHIL JAIN AKHIL.JAIN@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Research Fellow

PHIL HILL phil.hill@nottingham.ac.uk
Associate Professor



Abstract

The use of bacteria as catalysts for radical polymerisations of synthetic monomers has recently been established. However, the role of trans Plasma Membrane Electron Transport (tPMET) in modulating these processes is not well understood. We sort to study this by genetic engineering a part of the tPMET system NapC in E. coli. We show that this engineering altered the rate of extracellular electron transfer coincided with an effect on cell-mediated polymerisation using a model monomer. A plasmid with arabinose inducible PBAD promoters were shown to upregulate NapC protein upon induction at total arabinose concentrations of 0.0018% and 0.18%. These clones (E. coli(IP_0.0018%) and E. coli(IP_0.18%), respectively) were used in iron-mediated atom transfer radical polymerisation (Fe ATRP), affecting the nature of the polymerisation, than cultures containing suppressed or empty plasmids (E. coli(IP_S) and E. coli(E), respectively). These results lead to the hypothesis that EET (Extracellular Electron Transfer) in part modulates cell instructed polymerisations.

Citation

Bennett, M. R., Jain, A., Kovacs, K., Hill, P. J., Alexander, C., & Rawson, F. J. (2021). Engineering bacteria to control electron transport altering the synthesis of non-native polymer. RSC Advances, 12, 451-457. https://doi.org/10.1039/d1ra06403g

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 3, 2021
Online Publication Date Dec 21, 2021
Publication Date Dec 21, 2021
Deposit Date Dec 15, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal RSC Advances
Print ISSN 2046-2069
Electronic ISSN 2046-2069
Publisher Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 12
Pages 451-457
DOI https://doi.org/10.1039/d1ra06403g
Keywords General Chemical Engineering; General Chemistry
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7019181
Publisher URL https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2022/ra/d1ra06403g

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