Design of biofunctional assemblies on solids through recombinant spherical bacterial protein lumazine synthase.

The stepwise design of large protein assemblies such as actin-myosin complexes on solid supports is presented. The functional entities are anchored to the solid surface or solid-supported membranes through lumazine synthase, a 15 nm icosahedral capsid which can be functionalized by recombinant coupling of different linkers to the protomer, as shown in the cartoon. Separating the protein assemblies from the solid by 15 nm spaces avoids protein denaturing by nonspecific adsorption.