Researchers take a step toward creating an axle-rotor nanomachine

Bob Yirka is a writer for Phys.org.

A large team of researchers at the University of Washington, working with colleagues from Montpellier and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has taken a major step toward the creation of an axle-rotor nanomachine. In their paper, the group describes how they used genetic engineering to make E. coli that were assembled into rotors and axles.

The tails of flagellum, for example, are an abundant engine in nature. Attempts to harness them in nature or to create new ones in the lab have been mostly unsuccessful. The single purpose features of natural engines and the unpredictability of the folding of the proteins make this possible. In this new effort, the researchers have overcome some of the hurdles that others have faced and have taken a major step toward the creation of a molecular engine by creating two of the main parts necessary for such a device.

The researchers first used a software program to create their engine parts. They used the data from the program to add genes to the E. colibacteria. It is the sequence of the amino acids that determines the shape they will take when they spontaneously fold. The team was able to get some of the proteins to fold into shapes. They went further by making the basic parts of a molecular engine.

The researchers looked at the engine prototypes they created using electron microscopes and found the parts had folded as they wanted, but it was not possible to tell if the rotors were turning because the microscopes only take one picture at a time.

The next goal of the researchers is to design an engine that pushes the rotor to spin in a desired direction.

More information: A. Courbet et al, Computational design of mechanically coupled axle-rotor protein assemblies, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abm1183 Journal information: Science

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