Microbial cells have shown a great potential to biosynthesize inorganic nanoparticles within their orderly regulated intracellular environment. However, very little is known about the mechanism of nanoparticle biosynthesis. Therefore, it is difficult to control intracellular synthesis through the manipulation of biological processes. Here, we present a mechanism-oriented strategy for controlling the biosynthesis of fluorescent CdSe quantum dots (QDs) by means of metabolic engineering in yeast cells. Using genetic techniques, we demonstrated that the glutathione metabolic pathway controls the intracellular CdSe QD formation. Inspired from this mechanism, the controllability of CdSe QD yield was realized through engineering the glutathione metabolism in genetically modified yeast cells. The yeast cells were homogeneously transformed into more efficient cell-factories at the single-cell level, providing a specific way to direct the cellular metabolism toward CdSe QD formation. This work could provide the foundation for the future development of nanomaterial biosynthesis.

中文翻译：

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面向机制的细胞内量子点形成的可控性：谷胱甘肽代谢途径的作用。

微生物细胞已显示出在其有序调节的细胞内环境中生物合成无机纳米颗粒的巨大潜力。然而，关于纳米颗粒生物合成的机制知之甚少。因此，难以通过生物学过程的控制来控制细胞内合成。在这里，我们提出了一种机制导向的策略，通过酵母细胞中的代谢工程控制荧光CdSe量子点（QDs）的生物合成。使用遗传技术，我们证明了谷胱甘肽代谢途径控制细胞内CdSe QD的形成。受此机制的启发，通过设计转基因酵母细胞中的谷胱甘肽代谢，实现了CdSe QD产量的可控性。酵母细胞在单细胞水平上被同质转化为更有效的细胞工厂，从而提供了一种特定的方法来指导细胞的新陈代谢朝向CdSe QD的形成。这项工作可以为纳米材料生物合成的未来发展提供基础。