Adsorption Properties of a Gold-Binding Peptide Assessed by its Attachment to a Recombinant Apoferritin Molecule

Abstract

The adsorption properties of a recombinant apoferritin protein fused to a gold-binding peptide were characterized. The results of quartz crystal microbalance measurements showed that the fusion protein preferentially adsorbs to gold surfaces. Scanning electron microscopy also revealed that the protein selectively adsorbed onto a nanometer-scale gold pattern on a SiO2 surface fabricated by electron-beam lithography. Our results indicate that nanodots and nanowires synthesized using a biotemplate can be selectively placed onto a gold surface by genetically modifying the outer surface of the biotemplate. This technique represents an important step toward biotemplate-mediated fabrication of a nanometer-scaled device that utilizes gold electrodes.