Chimeric spider silk production in microalgae: a modular bionanomaterial

In this project, we propose to explore the modular characteristic of spider silk proteins, through synthetic biology techniques, by combining and directing its properties to the desired application. The aim of this project is to generate a modular bionanomaterial able to immobilize proteins. This bionanomaterial will be composed of modular recombinant proteins from spider silk, which will be the immobilization support to other proteins, in this project an antimicrobial protein (enzybiotic). By combining these proteins and their properties, the primary focus will be the use of this technology for the development of artificial skin for burn victims. The recombinant proteins, spider silk proteins and enzybiotics, will be expressed in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii strains by nuclear transformation. Each recombinant strain will express a different protein, which will contain the N- and C-terminal polymerization domains from native spider silk proteins. These domains are essential to the polymerization step and, subsequently, for production of a material very similar to silk. This material will be evaluated regarding its antimicrobial and mechanical properties, as well as the system productivity. These results may shed some light on spider silk-based immobilization support effectiveness, even for other biotechnological applications, such as the one idealized here