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Title: Shewanella oneidensis as a living electrode for controlled radical polymerization
Significance

Metabolic engineering benefits from the tunable and tightly controlled transformations afforded by biological systems. However, these reactions have generally been limited to naturally occurring pathways and products. In this work, we coopt metabolic electron transfer fromShewanella oneidensisto control the activity of an exogenous metal catalyst in an abiotic reaction scheme: atom-transfer radical polymerization. In the presence ofS. oneidensis, polymerizations exhibited well-defined kinetics and yielded polymers with controlled molecular weights and low polydispersities. Additionally, polymerization activity was dependent on electroactive metabolism and specific electron transport proteins, both of which provide handles to control material synthesis. This work serves as a proof-of-principle toward expanding the scope of reactions available to metabolic engineers to include previously discovered transition-metal–catalyzed reactions.

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Award ID(s):
1720595
NSF-PAR ID:
10476170
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume:
115
Issue:
18
ISSN:
0027-8424
Page Range / eLocation ID:
4559 to 4564
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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