Enzymes can be anchored in place within bacterial cells by engineered RNA scaffolds, boosting the output of the enzymes' biosynthetic pathway. This technique could be used to increase the efficiency of bacteria engineered to produce certain chemicals.
Pamela Silver at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, Ariel Lindner at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris and their colleagues designed one- and two-dimensional RNA scaffolds that fold into assemblies in cells. The scaffolds bind two proteins, PP7 and MS2. The team then attached a specific enzyme to each of the two proteins. When coexpressed, the two enzymes catalyse the production of hydrogen.
Cells containing the RNA scaffolds, which essentially organize and concentrate the enzymes and their products, generated between one and two orders of magnitude more hydrogen than those without scaffolds.
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RNA scaffolds boost biosynthesis. Nature 474, 545 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/474545c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/474545c
