# Excavation of acoustic nanostructures biosynthesis gene clusters by combinatorial strategy

## TL;DR

Researchers created a new type of gas vesicle that can be imaged by clinical ultrasound machines, expanding their biomedical applications.

## Contribution

A novel hybrid gas vesicle (ARGS1B) was synthesized using a combinatorial synthetic biology strategy.

## Key findings

- ARGS1B gas vesicles are 70 nm wide and 100 nm long, making them compatible with clinical ultrasound imaging.
- The new nanostructures can be produced stably in bacteria and engineered for different sizes via point mutations.
- This work expands the sources of gas vesicles and provides insights into their biosynthesis mechanism.

## Abstract

Gas vesicles (GVs) produced by microorganisms are genetically engineered, air-filled protein nanostructures that have widespread applications in ultrasound imaging and ultrasound-mediated drug delivery. However, constrained by the shape and size, most of them are difficult to be imaged by clinical ultrasound machines, which limits their biomedical applications. Here, we constructed a hybrid gene cluster of the structural gene cluster from Serratia sp. ATCC 39006 and the accessory gene cluster from Bacillus megaterium in Escherichia coli to synthesize a novel gene-encoded gas vesicle with a width of approximately 70 nm and a length of about 100 nm, using a synthetic biology strategy, termed as ARGS1B. This new type of GVs can be stably produced in bacteria and is able to be imaged by clinical ultrasound machines in vivo and in vitro. Furthermore, the novel nanostructure can be easily engineered for different particle sizes through point saturation mutation, expanding the sources of GVs and providing new insights into the biosynthesis mechanism of GVs.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s44307-025-00069-5.