Biomanufacturing Biotinylated Magnetic Nanomaterial via Construction and Fermentation of Genetically Engineered Magnetotactic Bacteria

Biosynthesis provides a critical way to deal with global sustainability issues and has recently drawn increased attention. However, modifying biosynthesized magnetic nanoparticles by extraction is challenging, limiting its applications. Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) synthesize single-domain magnetite nanocrystals in their organelles, magnetosomes (BMPs), which are excellent biomaterials that can be biologically modified by genetic engineering. Therefore, this study successfully constructed in vivo biotinylated BMPs in the MTB Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense by fusing biotin carboxyl carrier protein (BCCP) with membrane protein MamF of BMPs. The engineered strain (MSR−∆F−BF) grew well and synthesized small-sized (20 ± 4.5 nm) BMPs and were cultured in a 42 L fermenter; the yield (dry weight) of cells and BMPs reached 8.14 g/L and 134.44 mg/L, respectively, approximately three-fold more than previously reported engineered strains and BMPs. The genetically engineered BMPs (BMP−∆F−BF) were successfully linked with streptavidin or streptavidin-labelled horseradish peroxidase and displayed better storage stability compared with chemically constructed biotinylated BMPs. This study systematically demonstrated the biosynthesis of engineered magnetic nanoparticles, including its construction, characterization, and production and detection based on MTB. Our findings provide insights into biomanufacturing multiple functional magnetic nanomaterials.