趋磁细菌蛋白参与磁铁矿生物矿化机制的研究进展

Research Progress in Protein Mediated Biomineralization of Magnetotactic Bacteria

生物矿化是生命体系中的一种重要而又特殊的生理过程。生命体中存在着各种各样的生物矿化产物,从生物体骨骼与牙齿到纳米级的金属氧化物都是生物矿化的产物。生物矿化与普通矿化的最大不同就是其反应过程中有生物分子、生物代谢、细胞以及有机基质的参与。多种生物因素参与的矿化反应,不仅反应条件温和,而且反应产物具有更好的材料性能和生物兼容性,最为典型的是趋磁细菌可以通过生物矿化过程形成尺寸均一、单磁筹的生物膜包裹着的磁性纳米晶体——磁小体。本文主要介绍了趋磁细菌重要磁小体膜蛋白以及铁载体蛋白(铁蛋白)在磁铁矿生物矿化过程中的作用和功能,综述了该领域的最新研究概况。通过对趋磁细菌发生生物矿化过程的深入探讨可进一步揭示生物大分子调控无机矿物生长的分子机制,为仿生合成新型生物材料提供重要的理论依据。

Biomineralization is an important and special physiological process in life system. There are a variety of biological mineralization products in living organisms, from the well-known bones and teeth to metal oxides at the nanoscale. The major difference between biomineralization and normal mineralization is the in-volvement of biomolecules, metabolic products, various cells and biomatrix in the mineral formation process.A variety of biological factors participate in biomineralization. These factors not only make the reaction con-ditions mild, but also give the reaction products better material properties and biocompatibility. The most typical example is that magnetotactic bacteria can form magnetosomes, i.e, membrane-coated magnetic nanocrystals with uniform size and a single magnetic domain through the biomineralization process. Herein,the role and function of the important magnetosome membrane proteins of magnetotatic bacteria and the iron carrier protein(ferritin) in the process of magnetite biomineralization are summarized. The in-depth studying of the biomineralizaed process of magnetotatic bacteria would reveal the molecular mechanism of biological macromolecules in regulating the growth of inorganic minerals, and provide an important theoretical basis for the biomimetic synthesis of new biomaterials.