Method for preparing a cross-linked hydrogel nanomembrane, the cross-linked hydrogel nanomembrane, TEM grid comprising the same and use thereof

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for preparing a hydrogel nanomembrane comprising: a) formation of a non-cross-linked hydrogel nanofilm on a first substrate; b) cross-linking the non-cross-linked hydrogel with a cross-linking agent to obtain a cross-linked hydrogen nanomembrane; and c) transferring the cross-linked hydrogel nanomembrane to a second substrate, a respective cross-linked hydrogel nanomembrane, a TEM grid comprising the same and use thereof.

Claims

1. Method for preparing a hydrogel nanomembrane comprising: a) formation of a non-cross-linked hydrogel nanofilm on a first substrate; b) cross-linking the non-cross-linked hydrogel with a cross-linking agent to obtain a cross-linked hydrogel nanomembrane; and c) transferring the cross-linked hydrogel nanomembrane to a second substrate, wherein the non-cross-linked nanofilm comprises a biorepulsive hydrophilic dendrimer.

2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the biorepulsive hydrophilic dendrimer comprises polyglycerol or derivatives thereof.

3. Method according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the non-cross-linked hydrogel nanofilm is from 1 to 4 nm.

4. Method according to claim 1, wherein the cross-linking agent is a bifunctional cross-linking agent and/or a polymerization cross-linking agent.

5. Method according to claim 4, wherein the bifunctional cross-linking agent is a oligoethylene glycol derivative.

6. Method according to claim 4, wherein the polymerization cross-linking agent is a diglycidyl ether.

7. Method according to claim 1, wherein the concentration of the cross-linking agent is from 20 mM to 100 mM.

8. Method according to claim 1, wherein the second substrate has holes.

9. Method according to claim 1, wherein holes in the nanomembrane are adjusted by consecutive plasma or glow discharge treatment.

10. Method according to claim 1, wherein the second substrate is a TEM grid.

11. Method according to claim 1, wherein the second substrate comprises silicon, carbon, SiO.sub.2, Au or a composite thereof.

12. Cross-linked hydrogel nanomembrane obtained by the method according to claim 1.

13. Cross-linked hydrogel nanomembrane according to claim 12, the nanomembrane having holes of a width of 50 to 500 nm.

14. TEM grid comprising the cross-linked hydrogel nanomembrane and the second substrate obtained by the method according to claim 1, wherein the cross-linked hydrogel nanomembrane is disposed on at least one surface of the second substrate.

15. Method according to claim 1, wherein the cross-linking agent is a bifunctional cross-linking agent and/or a polymerization cross-linking agent.

16. Method according to claim 2, wherein the cross-linking agent is a bifunctional cross-linking agent and/or a polymerization cross-linking agent.

17. Method according to claim 1, wherein the second substrate consists of silicon, carbon, SiO.sub.2, Au or a composite thereof.

Description

(1) In the following, the invention will be described in greater detail referring to specific embodiments and the enclosed figures, wherein

(2) FIG. 1 Distribution of membrane proteins on holey carbon films without and with SPHyNs. (A) Owing to a variety of effects, such as reduced surface tension and non-specific adsorption, proteins are frequently accumulated on or near the carbon film and thus depleted from the thin water layer in the holey carbon film by accumulation at and near the carbon film. (B) Biorepulsive SPHyNs stabilize the thin water layer as well as cover the carbon film thus preventing depletion of proteins from the holes and minimizing adsorption to the solid substrate.

(3) FIG. 2 Fabrication of SPHyNs and their transfer to TEM grids. (a) PG-functionalized disulfide was synthesized by a polymerization reaction of glycidol with cystamine as initiator and was subsequently attached to a gold surface (b). (c) To generate freestanding membranes, the PG dendrimers were crosslinked with 1,11-di(mesyloxy)-3,6,9-trioxaundecane (Ms2TEG), synthesized using tetraethylene glycol as starting material. (d) Transfer of the membrane (green layer) to a TEM grid: First, PMMA is spin-coated onto the gold substrate (blue layer). Second, the gold layer with the two polymer layers is released from the silicon wafer, followed by dissolution of the gold. Third, the sandwich consisting of PMMA and crosslinked PG is placed on a TEM grid. In the final step, PMMA is dissolved with acetone in a critical-point dryer.

(4) FIG. 3 TEM analysis of freestanding SPHyNs. (A), (B) TEM images of SPHyNs spanning holes of a Quantifoil® R2/2 substrate. SPHyNs were fabricated at concentrations of 50 mM (A) or 10 mM (B) of Ms2TEG. Scale bars are 200 nm. (C) Dependence of porosity, measured as the average area covered by SPHyNs in the holes of a Quantifoil® R2/2 substrate, on crosslinker concentration. Averages were obtained from 30 independent TEM images for each concentration. The curve is intended as a guide.

(5) FIG. 4 SPHyNs imaged by SEM and TEM. The SPHyNs were obtained with 5 mM Ms2TEG. (A) TEM image of a SPHyN transferred to a C-flat® multi-hole substrate. The self-perforation of the film is independent of the shape and size of the holes in the substrate. (right) Magnified views of selected holes. Scale bars are 2 μm (left) and 500 nm (right). (B) Secondary electron SEM image of a SPHyN on a Quantifoil® R2/2 substrate. No pore formation is observed on the solid substrates. The scale bar is 2 μm.

(6) FIG. 5 Converting SPHyNs with small holes to SPHyNs with a larger average hole size. (top) TEM image of a SPHyN crosslinked with 10 mM Ms2TEG. (below) The same membrane after 45 s plasma treatment. Scale bars are 500 nm.

(7) FIG. 6 Cryo-EM of complex I from Y. lipolytica vitrified on SPHyNs. (A) Cryo-EM image of a vitrified sample revealing the SPHyN spanning the holes of a Quantifoil® R2/2 substrate. High-resolution cryo-EM image showing vitrified complex I and the SPHyN. (C) 2D class averages. (D) Electron density of complex I at 8.1 Å resolution using the local resolution result for coloring. The color scale is given in AÅ. (E) Representation of the electron density map of complex I revealing the iron-sulfur clusters in the soluble part of the protein. Scale bars: 2 μm (A), 200 nm (B), 10 nm (D).

(8) FIG. 7 Cryo-EM of ATP synthase from Polytomella sp. vitrified on SPHyNs. (A) Cryo-EM image of vitrified Polytomella ATP synthase dimers and the SPHyN. (B) 2D class averages. (C) Structure of the ATP synthase dimer at a resolution of 6.4 Å using the local resolution result for coloring. The color scale is given in Å. (D) Horizontal section through the Fo part revealing the cm rotor rings, 6 membrane-spanning α-helices per protomer and the hairpin of long horizontal a-subunit helices. Scale bars: 50 nm (A), 10 nm (C, D).

(9) FIG. 8 AFM images of SPHyNs transferred to Si wafers.

(10) FIG. 9 Cryo-EM images of complex I vitrified on lacey carbon and continuous carbon film mounted on Quantifoil® R2/2 grids.

(11) FIG. 10 FSC plot obtained during refinement of complex I structure.

(12) FIG. 11 Angular distribution plot for reconstruction of complex I 3D structure.

(13) FIG. 12 FSC plot obtained during refinement of ATP synthase structure.

(14) FIG. 13 Angular distribution plot for reconstruction of ATP synthase 3D structure.

(15) FIG. 14 Bifunctional cross-linking of two polyglycerol dendrimers using a tetraethylene glycol derivative.

(16) FIG. 15 Polymerization cross-linking of two polyglycerol dendrimer molecules using ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (EGDGE). After cross-linking two new hydroxyl groups are formed allowing a further polymerization with EGDGE (right hand).

(17) FIG. 16 Scanning tunnel microscopic image of a continuous PG-EGDGE membrane.

(18) To stabilize the thin water layer for the cryo-EM, the invention devises a method for the fabrication of SPHyNs with a thickness of ˜2 nm by chemical crosslinking of monolayers of, for example, polyglycerol (PG), a biorepulsive hydrophilic dendrimer that exposes a multitude of OH groups..sup.13-17

(19) The fabrication of SPHyNs and their transfer to TEM grids is shown schematically in FIG. 2.

(20) Next, the concentrations of the crosslinker Ms2TEG from 3 mM-100 mM to optimize the properties of the PG layers. The thickness of the layers did not increase significantly upon crosslinking at any concentration used. When transferred to silicon wafers, the films formed continuous membranes with a thickness of ˜2 nm (Supporting FIG. S1). In contrast, upon transfer to holey carbon substrates (FIG. 2d) in a critical-point dryer, the freestanding crosslinked PG film formed perforated membranes at any concentration of Ms2TEG. FIG. 3 shows TEM images of SPHyNs revealing a spider web-like structure with 50-500 nm holes.

(21) We observed an almost linear dependence of porosity of freestanding SPHyNs on the crosslinker for Ms2TEG concentrations between 100 mM and 20 mM (FIG. 3C). At Ms2TEG concentrations below 20 mM, the porosity was difficult to control. We conclude that two factors determine the structure of freestanding SPHyNs: the concentration of the crosslinker as well as forces imparted to the membranes during the transfer process. Upon crosslinking, weak points in the PG membranes act as nucleation points for subsequent self-perforation of the freestanding membranes upon removal of the sacrificial PMMA layer.

(22) To analyze the influence of hole size and shape on the self-perforation of the crosslinked PG membranes, we transferred membranes to C-flat® multi-hole grids with a variety of round and elliptical holes. TEM images of such SPHyNs are shown in FIG. 4A. The images demonstrate that the structure of freestanding SPHyNs, formed upon transfer to holey substrates, is independent of shape and size of the holes supporting the mechanism suggested above. FIG. 4B shows an SEM image of a crosslinked PG membrane transferred to a Quantifoil® R2/2 substrate. Neither SEM nor TEM indicated pore formation in the crosslinked PG films covering the solid substrate areas. This confirms the AFM results (Supporting FIG. S1), which show that the crosslinked PG membranes form continuous, films on solid supports.

(23) Mild plasma treatment increased the average pore size of SPHyNs. The top of FIG. 5 shows a TEM image of a SPHyN crosslinked with 10 mM Ms2TEG. Upon glow-discharge for 45 s, the average covered area decreased from 39 (+/−3) % to 10 (+/−3) %. (FIG. 5, bottom).

(24) To demonstrate that SPHyNs improve the distribution of detergent-solubilized membrane proteins in the thin water films used for cryo-EM, we prepared vitreous samples of complex I and ATP synthase dimers, two eukaryotic membrane protein complexes, for which it has been difficult to obtain cryo-specimens with the large number of particles per unit area required for high-resolution data collection..sup.18,19 Mitochondrial complex I is a multi-subunit complex involved in electron transfer from NADH to ubiquinone to transfer protons across the inner mitochondrial membrane..sup.20 Obtaining vitrified samples of complex I from Y. lipolytica with a homogeneous distribution of particles in the holes of a holey carbon film is a bottleneck for structural analysis. Cryo-EM images of complex I from Y. lipolytica vitrified on Quantifoil® R2/2 substrates as well as on lacey carbon films mounted on Quantifoil® R2/2 substrates reveal particles aggregated on the carbon surface, although in both cases the carbon was made hydrophilic by glow discharge (Supporting FIG. S2). The reduced surface tension caused by the detergent dodecyl maltoside (DDM), used to solubilize complex I, depleted particles are from the water film, creating a bottleneck for single particle analysis.

(25) FIG. 1B is a schematic sketch of a protein sample vitrified on SPHyNs. Cryo-EM images of complex I vitrified on SPHyNs routinely revealed more than 60 individual protein particles per image suitable for single particle cryo-EM (FIG. 6A, B). Because the film is biorepulsive, adsorption of protein molecules to SPHyNs is minimized. In contrast, protein aggregation on the carbon surface precluded particle picking from Quantifoil® R2/2 grids (Supporting FIG. S2). Using 7138 particles from 123 images, we performed a gold-standard refinement and calculated a map of complex I with a resolution of 8.1 Å (Fourier shell correlation (FSC) criterion21=0.143) (FIG. 6D, E, Supporting FIG. S3). The map shows all elements of secondary structure known from previous work.sup.18 and well-resolved iron-sulfur clusters (FIG. 6E).

(26) To demonstrate that the method is broadly applicable in cryo-EM of membrane proteins, we prepared vitrified samples of mitochondrial ATP synthase from Polytomella sp. on SPHyNs. Although the structure of Polytomella ATP synthase dimers has been analyzed by cryo-EM with a resolution of 6.2 Å in former work,.sup.19 obtaining vitrified samples of this F-type ATP synthase suitable for high-resolution structure determination remains difficult, as in the case of complex I. FIG. 7A demonstrates that SPHyNs prevent the depletion of ATP synthase dimers from the holes of Quantifoil® R2/2 substrates, allowing efficient acquisition of cryo-EM images.

(27) We used 23200 particles from 2096 images to calculate a 3D reconstruction of dimeric Polytomella ATP synthase with a resolution of 6.4 Å (FIG. 7C, D, Supporting FIG. S4). Compared to previous work, in which 37238 dimer images were averaged to obtain a map with a resolution of 6.2 Å,19 we required 14000 fewer particles (38% less) to calculate a 3D reconstruction with a resolution of 6.4 Å. This is explained by the fact that ATP synthase dimer samples vitrified on SPHyNs were be picked from areas where the amorphous ice layer was thin, whereas in former work particles were preferentially located in areas in the corners of the grid square, where the ice is thicker..sup.19

(28) Apart from stabilizing the thin film of aqueous buffer spanning the holes, crosslinked PG-membranes form a continuous biorepulsive layer on the carbon support. We assume that adsorption of proteins to the solid substrate areas is minimized, which contributes to the improved distribution of protein molecules in the holes, as observed in this work and previous work on gold substrates functionalized with self-assembled monolayers..sup.12 An important advantage of our approach is the fact that SPHyNs can be transferred to substrates other than amorphous carbon, such as gold.sup.10 or titanium-silicon films..sup.5

(29) In summary, we have demonstrated that SPHyNs improve the distribution of proteins in the thin water film in specimen preparation for cryo-EM thus facilitating the acquisition of large high-quality single-particle image data sets. The advantages of SPHyNs are threefold. First, owing to the hydrophilic nature of the hydrogel, aqueous samples can be applied to the grid without prior glow discharge. This prevents protein adsorption to the reverse side of the film, in contrast to glow-discharged conventional carbon film. Second, the network stabilizes the thin water film, and thus suppresses the formation of a meniscus and the concomitant depletion of proteins from the holes. Third, SPHyNs are protein-repellent, which minimizes the interaction between the support film and the membrane proteins. All three effects assure a homogeneous distribution of the protein molecules in the thin layer of vitrified buffer. This opens the opportunity for using SPHyNs on holey carbon supports with round holes for automated data collection..sup.22 SPHyNs hold great promise to obtaining high-quality vitrified membrane protein samples with an abundance of protein molecules conveniently located in thin ice areas.

(30) Experimental Part

(31) Materials and Methods

(32) SAM Formation and Characterization

(33) Gold substrates for SAM deposition were prepared by electron beam evaporation. 2.5 nm of titanium followed by 200 nm of gold were deposited onto polished single-crystal silicon wafers with (100) orientation (Wacker Siltronic AG, Germany). For the preparation of the PG nanomembranes, 200 nm of gold were deposited onto polished single-crystal silicon wafers with (100) orientation without an adhesion-layer.

(34) Ethanol (99% with 1% petroleum ether) was refluxed for 6 h and freshly distilled before use. The gold substrates were cleaved from the wafer, rinsed with ethanol and cleaned with H2 plasma in a Harrick PDC-32G plasma cleaner (high level, pressure of 5.10-1 mbar, 2 min). For SAM deposition, the clean substrates were immersed in 5 μM solutions of disulfide PG in ethanol at room temperature. After at least 48 hours, the samples were rinsed with water, ethanol and dried in a nitrogen stream.

(35) Crosslinking of PG SAMs

(36) Crosslinking of the PG monolayer was performed by the immersion of the substrate in a solution consisting of Ms2TEG.sup.23 at the desired concentration and 1.2 eq of pyridine in N,N-dimethylformamide under argon. The substrates were incubated for 24 h at room temperature, washed with water and ethanol and dried in a stream of nitrogen.

(37) Transfer of Crosslinked PG Membranes

(38) For the transfer of PG nanomembranes to TEM grids or single-crystal silicon wafers cross-linked PG monolayers were prepared on 200 nm of gold deposited onto polished single-crystal silicon wafers without any adhesion layer. First, the crosslinked PG film was protected by spin-coating poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) on the film. Afterwards the gold was exfoliated by angular dipping of the substrate into water. The floating gold film was transferred to the different solutions with a piece of silicon. The gold was etched by placing the floating gold film on an iodine solution (2.5 wt % iodine, 10 wt % potassium iodide in water). Afterwards the PMMA-protected membrane was placed on an aqueous potassium iodide solution (10 wt % potassium iodide in water). In the case of freestanding membranes, the PMMA was removed by immersion in acetone for 2 h, followed by critical-point-drying. On silicon wafers the PMMA was removed by immersion in acetone for 2 h and drying in a stream of nitrogen.

(39) Analysis of PG Membranes by SEM and TEM

(40) SEM analysis of SPHyNs was performed with a Zeiss Auriga operating at an accelerating voltage of 5 kV. SPHyNs were analyzed at room temperature in a FEI Tecnai Spirit transmission electron microscope operating at an accelerating voltage of 120 kV. Images were acquired using a Gatan 4k*4k CCD camera. Images were analyzed using ImageJ..sup.24

(41) Cryo-EM and 3D reconstruction of complex I from Y. lipolytica

(42) Complex I was purified as described previously..sup.25 3 μl of a complex I sample at a concentration of approximately 2 mg/ml was applied to Quantifoil® R2/2 holey carbon grids coated with SPHyN without glow discharge. The grids were blotted for 9 sec at 70% humidity and 16° C. in an FEI Vitrobot plunge-freezer. CryoEM images were recorded on a FEI Tecnai Polara operating at 300 kV equipped with a Gatan K2 back-thinned direct detector operating in movie mode. Images were collected manually at a nominal magnification of 115,000×, corresponding to a sampling density of 1.83 Å/pixel. Videos were collected for 8 s with a total of 40 frames with a calibrated dose of about 0.5 e-/Å.sup.2 per frame, at defocus values between −1.1 and −3.9 μm. A set of 154 micrographs was collected and the frames were aligned by the algorithm of by Li et al..sup.3 Particles were picked using the semi-automatic procedure of EMAN Boxer,.sup.26 and the micrograph-based CTF was determined with CTFFIND327 in the RELION workflow..sup.28 The initial dataset contained a total of 7,630 particle images from 123 selected micrographs and were extracted using a box of 240 pixels. The particles were subjected to an initial two-dimensional reference-free (2D) classification in RELION to discard imperfect particles. Visual selection of particle classes with interpretable features resulted in a dataset of 7138 particle images for 3D consensus refinement. A map based on the cryo-EM map of Y. lipolytica complex I.sup.18 was low-pass filtered to 50 Å and used as an initial model for the 3D gold standard refinement in RELION. The post-processing procedure implemented in RELION was applied to the final maps for B-factor sharpening and resolution validation..sup.29 The local resolution of the map was estimated by ResMap..sup.30 The complex I crystal structure (pdb code 4WZ7) was rigid-body fitted and figures were drawn in Chimera..sup.31

(43) Cryo-EM and 3D reconstruction of Polytomella ATP synthase dimers

(44) Mitochondria were isolated from Polytomella sp. cells (198.80, E. G. Pringsheim) as described previously..sup.32 A 3 μl sample with a concentration of 1.5 mg/ml was applied to Quantifoil® R2/2 grids coated with SPHyNs without glow discharge treatment. Samples were blotted in an FEI Vitrobot Mark IV at 4° C. and 100% humidity for 10 s and plunged into liquid ethane. Data acquisition was carried out on a JEM-3200 FSC equipped with an in-column energy filter and K2 Summit detector operated in counting mode. Micrographs were collected as 9 s movies of 0.2 s/frame with a dose rate of 11 e-/pix/s and a pixel size of 1.14 Å. Motion between frames was corrected by running Unblur.sup.33,34 without dose filtering, followed by MotionCor2, with dose-filtering..sup.35 CTF estimation was carried out using CTFFind436 within the RELION workflow, and was carried out on non-dose-filtered movie frames, summing 1, 2 or 4 frames. For each micrograph, defocus values from the run giving the best ‘Resolution to which Thon rings are fit’ value were used. Micrographs for which this resolution was 7 Å or worse were discarded. All subsequent processing steps were carried out in Relion.sup.2 beta version.28,37 The summed images were used to extract hand-picked particles at a box size of 480 pixels, which were down-sampled to a box size of 240. 3D refinement was carried out against a 40 Å-low-pass-filtered starting model based on previous work19 using C2 symmetry and a soft mask including the entire dimeric protein. Local resolution estimation was carried out using ResMap29 within the Relion 2.0beta workflow. Figures were generated in Chimera..sup.31

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(82) Synthesis of SAM-Forming Molecules

(83) General Methods

(84) Moisture- or oxygen-sensitive reactions were performed under nitrogen 5.0 (≥99.999 vol. %) in glassware dried by heating under vacuum. 1H-NMR spectra were recorded with a Bruker AM-250 and AV-500 instrument. Chemical shifts in ppm were measured relative to tetramethylsilane. Spectra were calibrated using residual solvent signals either of chloroform (δ=7.26 ppm) or dimethylsulfoxide (δ=2.50 ppm) as a reference.

(85) Synthesis of Disulfide-PG

(86) Cystamine (640 mg, 4.20 mmol, 1 eq) was heated to 95° C. and glycidol (31.1 g, 420 mmol, 100 eq) was slowly added by a syringe pump (0.5 ml/h, 56 h) under continued heating and stirring. The reaction mixture was allowed to cool to room temperature followed by the addition of 50 ml of water. The resulting solution was dialyzed against 10 l of water for 4 days. The water was exchanged once per day. The solvent was removed under reduced pressure and the residue dried in an oil pump vacuum.

(87) yield: 6.45 g

(88) Mm=2236 Da

(89) 1H-NMR (500.2 MHz, DMSO-D6): δ=4.74 (s, br), 4.67 (s, br), 4.60 (s, br), 4.53 (s, br), 4.47 (s, br), 3.70 (s, br), 3.54 (s, br), 3.40 (s, br), 3.35 (s, br), 3.32 (s, br). 13C-NMR (125.8 MHz, DMSO-D6): δ=80.1 (s, br), 79.9 (s, br), 79.8 (s, br), 78.2 (s, br), 77.9 (s, br), 72.9 (s, br), 71.7 (s, br), 71.5 (s, br), 70.8 (s, br), 70.7 (s, br), 70.5 (s, br), 69.5 (s, br), 68.9 (s, br), 68.6 (s, br), 63.1 (s, br), 61.0 (s, br).

(90) Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)

(91) AFM images were taken in “semicontact mode” at an NT-MDT (Solver Pro) instrument.

(92) Infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS)

(93) IRRA-spectra were measured on a Thermo Scientific Nicolet 6700 FT-IR spectrometer purged with dry air and equipped with a nitrogen-cooled mercury-cadmium-telluride-detector and a Smart SAGA set-up. Measurements were performed using p-polarized light at an incidence angle of 80° relative to the surface normal. 256 scans were recorded at a resolution of 4 cm.sup.−1 from 650 to 3500 cm.sup.−1 at room temperature.

(94) Ellipsometry

(95) Ellipsometric measurements were carried out on a Sentech SE400 ellipsometer with a He—Ne laser (632.8 nm) at an incidence angle of 70° from the surface normal. A multilayer model on the basis of the Sentech analysis software was used to calculate the layer thickness. The complex refractive index was determined individually on different positions immediately after H2 plasma cleaning. For the SAM layers, n=1.45 and k=0.00 were used as input in the multilayer simulations.

(96) The features disclosed in the foregoing description, the claims and the accompanying drawings may, both separately and in any combination, be material for realizing the invention in diverse forms thereof.