山西大学王宏飞团队报道了蛋白质纳米笼生物合成不同尺寸Fe-O纳米团簇的生长过程。相关研究成果发表在2024年4月20日出版的《美国化学会杂志》。

所有蛋白质导向的金属纳米团簇（NCs）和纳米颗粒（NPs）的合成引起了相当大的关注，因为蛋白质支架提供了独特的金属配位环境，可以调节NCs和NPs的形状和形态。然而，由蛋白质模板引导的NCs或NPs的详细形成机制仍不清楚。

该项研究中，通过利用铁蛋白纳米笼作为生物模板来监测作为时间函数的Fe–O纳米晶体的生长，研究人员合成了一系列不同尺寸和形状的铁纳米晶体，随后通过X射线蛋白质晶体学和冷冻电子显微镜分析了它们相应的三维原子尺度结构。时间相关结构分析揭示了这些Fe–O NCs的生长过程，铁蛋白的4倍通道作为成核位点。新生物合成的Fe₃₅O₂₃Glu₁₂代表了具有明确原子结构的最大Fe–O NCs。

该研究有助于我们理解铁NCs的形成机理，为金属NCs的合成提供了一种有效的方法。

附：英文原文

Title: Growth Process of Fe–O Nanoclusters with Different Sizes Biosynthesized by Protein Nanocages

Author: Wenming Wang, Hongfang Xi, Dan Fu, Danyang Ma, Wenjun Gong, Yaqin Zhao, Xiaomei Li, Lijie Wu, Yu Guo, Guanghua Zhao, Hongfei Wang

Issue&Volume: April 20, 2024

Abstract: All protein-directed syntheses of metal nanoclusters (NCs) and nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted considerable attention because protein scaffolds provide a unique metal coordination environment and can adjust the shape and morphology of NCs and NPs. However, the detailed formation mechanisms of NCs or NPs directed by protein templates remain unclear. In this study, by taking advantage of the ferritin nanocage as a biotemplate to monitor the growth of Fe–O NCs as a function of time, we synthesized a series of iron NCs with different sizes and shapes and subsequently solved their corresponding three-dimensional atomic-scale structures by X-ray protein crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy. The time-dependent structure analyses revealed the growth process of these Fe–O NCs with the 4-fold channel of ferritin as nucleation sites. To our knowledge, the newly biosynthesized Fe35O23Glu12 represents the largest Fe–O NCs with a definite atomic structure. This study contributes to our understanding of the formation mechanism of iron NCs and provides an effective method for metal NC synthesis.

DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c13830

Source: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jacs.3c13830