LEAFY protein crystals with a honeycomb structure as a platform for selective preparation of outstanding stable bio-hybrid materials

Well-organized protein assemblies offer many properties that justify their use for the design of innovative bionanomaterials. Herein, crystals of the oligomerization domain of the LEAFY protein from Ginkgo biloba, organized in a honeycomb architecture, were used as a modular platform for the selective grafting of a ruthenium-based complex. The resulting bio-hybrid crystalline material was fully characterized by UV-visible and Raman spectroscopy and by mass spectrometry and LC-MS analysis after selective enzymatic digestion. Interestingly, insertion of complexes within the tubular structure affords an impressive increase in stability of the crystals, eluding the use of stabilizing cross-linking strategies.