Sophisticated protein self-assemblies have attracted great scientific interests in recent few decades due to their various potential applications in substance/signal transmission, biosensors, or disease diagnosis and treatment. The design and construction of proteins into hierarchical nanostructures via self-assembly strategies offer unique advantages in understanding the mechanism of naturally occurring protein assemblies and/or creating various functional biomaterials with advanced properties. This review covers the recent progress and trends in the self-assembled hierarchical protein structures and their bio-inspired applications. We initially discuss the design and development of sophisticated protein nanostructures through the preciously designed protein–protein interactions. Many intricate protein nanostructures from quasi-zero dimensional (0D) polyhedral cages, one-dimensional (1D) strings/rings/tubules, two-dimensional (2D) crystal sheets/cambered surfaces, and three-dimensional (3D) crystalline frameworks/hydrogels, have been constructed through self-assembly of rationally designed proteins. In addition, we also show the representative achievements in the study of the structure–function relationship for selected protein self-assemblies and highlight the latest research progress in developing artificial light harvesting systems, biological nanoenzyme mimics, intelligent protein nanocarriers, biomimetic protocells, and so on. As expected, protein self-assembly has become a powerful tool for development of multifarious bioinspired materials with advanced structures and properties.

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基于蛋白质自组装的纳米结构：从层次结构到生物启发的材料

复杂的蛋白质自组装由于其在物质/信号传输，生物传感器或疾病诊断和治疗中的各种潜在应用而在近几十年来引起了极大的科学兴趣。蛋白质的设计和建设纳入分层的纳米结构通过自组装策略在理解天然蛋白质组装机理和/或创建具有先进特性的各种功能生物材料方面具有独特的优势。这项审查涵盖了自组装的层次蛋白质结构及其生物启发的应用程序的最新进展和趋势。我们最初讨论通过设计精巧的蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用来设计和开发复杂的蛋白质纳米结构。来自准零维（0D）多面体笼，一维（1D）弦/环/管状，二维（2D）晶体片/弧形表面以及三维（3D）晶体骨架/水凝胶的许多复杂的蛋白质纳米结构，已通过合理设计的蛋白质的自组装而构建。此外，我们还展示了在所选蛋白质自组装的结构与功能关系研究中的代表性成就，并着重介绍了在开发人工光收集系统，生物纳米酶模拟物，智能蛋白质纳米载体，仿生原生细胞等方面的最新研究进展。不出所料，蛋白质自组装已成为开发具有先进结构和特性的多种生物启发材料的有力工具。