New class of crosslinker-free nanofiber biomaterials from Hydra nematocyst proteins
Nematocysts are stinging organelles of cnidarians that have remarkable mechanical properties to undergo 50 percent volume changes during explosive exocytosis (process by which cells excrete waste and large molecules), while withstanding osmotic pressures beyond 100 bar. Researchers had recently identified two novel protein components that built up the nematocyst wall in Hydra to include (1) a cnidarian proline-rich protein-1 (CPP-1) with a rigid polyproline motif, and (2) an elastic Cnidoin possessing a silk-like domain. In a new study, now on Scientific Reports, Theresa Bentele and a team of researchers in the departments of Medicine, Molecular Evolution and Genomics and the Institute of Physical Chemistry in Germany, Australia and Japan, expressed recombinant Cnidoin and CPP-1 proteins in Escherichia coli.