A synthetic method developed by Duke University engineers increases the production of bacterial proteins, which could be useful for biofuels and medications.

Duke University biomedical engineers have created a synthetic method that dramatically increases bacteria's capacity to make particular proteins, including antibiotics and other substances that would normally be harmful to them. This discovery, which was reported on February 10 in Nature Chemistry, has the potential to completely transform sectors such as biofuels, industrial chemicals, and medicines that depend on bacterial protein production.

The method uses artificially generated disordered proteins that spontaneously aggregate to create biological condensates, which are cellular spaces that maximize biomolecular processes. Bacteria may significantly speed up the creation of proteins by trapping messenger RNA (mRNA) and the machinery needed to make proteins in these condensates.

2009 saw the discovery of biological condensates, which are found naturally in cells and control metabolic processes. The use of synthetic condensates to affect biological functions was first introduced by Duke's Chilkoti Laboratory, a pioneer in the study of elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs). They laid the groundwork for this most recent development in 2023 when they were able to effectively instruct bacteria to produce condensates based on ELP.

By instructing condensates to bind particular RNA sequences, the new technique expands on this breakthrough and essentially creates a reaction crucible that improves protein translation efficiency. Although cells are capable of producing more RNA, Shapiro, the lead researcher, notes that speeding up the production of proteins from RNA has proven difficult—until now.

With broad uses in industrial production, sustainable energy, and medicine, this innovative method has the potential to revolutionize biotechnology by increasing the speed and efficiency of bacterial protein synthesis.