Abstract
We are constructing a large protein cage within bacteria that can be used to confine and compartmentalize biochemical reactions with potential toxic intermediate products. Bacterial microcompartments (BMC’s) are currently the main tool for compartmentalizing bacterial cells and biochemical reactions. Our protein cage could overcome the current limitations of BMC’s, which are very small in size and can only hold up to two different enzyme types so far. To produce this protein cage, we are taking a minimal component approach to replicate a natural phage-bacteria interaction. The phage we are working with encapsulates its DNA into a protein cage upon infection of the host bacteria. By using multiple approaches such as microscopy, sequence analysis and in-vitro assays, we try to assess which proteins are necessary to form the protein cage. We then co-express promising candidate genes in the host and evaluate the results via microscopy.