Giant Proteinosomes As Scaffolds for Light Harvesting

Abstract

Based on an interfacial assembly strategy, a giant proteinosome was successfully fabricated by using protein-surfactant as building blocks, which formed a thin protein layer as a membrane. This approach of making protein assemblies was very facile, and it was very convenient to remove the templates of oil and get water-filled proteinosomes by dialysis. Through modifying acceptor and donor chromophores on the protein monomers, an efficient artificial light-harvesting system was successfully fabricated on the proteinosome, which was a scaffold for efficient light harvesting. Furthermore, the on-off switchable energy transfer was realized by protein folding and unfolding. The efficient artificial light-harvesting systems we designed as the potential platforms could be utilized for biomaterials.