Modification and Assembly of a Versatile Lactonase for Bacterial Quorum Quenching.

This work sets out to provide a self-assembled biopolymer capsule activated with a multi-functional enzyme for localized delivery. This enzyme, Pox, which is a lactonase and phosphotriesterase, provides a means of interrupting bacterial communication pathways that have been shown to mediate pathogenicity. Here we demonstrate the capability to express, purify and attach Pox to the natural biopolymer chitosan, preserving its activity to "neutralize" long-chain autoinducer-1 (AI-1) communication molecules.