Engineering signal peptide-mediated recombinant protein secretion in Komagataeibacter rhaeticus for biological Engineered Living Material applications

Abstract Bacterial nanocellulose (BC), produced by Komagataeibacter species, is an ideal scaffold for biological Engineered Living Materials (bioELMs) research. Current BC functionalization strategies often rely on secondary microbial hosts or post-production enzyme immobilization, limiting the scalability and modularity required for programmable bioELMs. Establishing a single-chassis system capable of simultaneous biopolymer synthesis and in situ functionalization remains a primary objective in bioELM research. This study addresses the need by benchmarking signal peptide-mediated protein translocation in K. rhaeticus iGEM, a model bacterium for BC-based bioELMs, enabling a synthetic biology framework for single-chassis based biomaterial functionalization. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Footnotes Signal peptide screening figures and supplementary files revised.