Guest Seminar - Designer Membraneless Compartments in Living Bacteria

Eukaryotic cells are evolved with organelles with sophisticated structures and functions. In contrast to the phospholipid-bound organelles, membraneless organelles are unique because they are liquid-like, formed via liquid-liquid phase separation of the underlying components and thus more dynamic in response to perturbations. This has inspired biotechnologists to design and construct membraneless organelles for biosynthetic applications. However, it remains a challenge to create such an organelle from scratch in prokaryotes.  In this talk, I will introduce the creation of designer membraneless compartments in the model prokaryote Escherichia coli. To this end, a modular approach has been developed by employing two categories of proteins. The first category of proteins are termed “scaffolding” due to their intrinsic capability to phase separate into protein condensates under molecularly crowded conditions. The second category are cargo proteins with on-demand functions. By appropriate linking the cargoes and scaffolding proteins such as spider silk protein, resilin and other protein polymers, we are able to control the formation and functionalization of membraneless compartments in living E. coli so that the bacterial chassis could be reprogrammed for de novo biosynthesis within the subcellular milieu.