RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Engineered protein nanocages for concurrent RNA and protein packaging in vivo JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2022.06.16.496435 DO 10.1101/2022.06.16.496435 A1 Seokmu Kwon A1 Tobias W. Giessen YR 2022 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/06/16/2022.06.16.496435.abstract AB Protein nanocages have emerged as an important engineering platform for biotechnological and biomedical applications. Among naturally occurring protein cages, encapsulin nanocompartments have recently gained prominence due to their favorable physico-chemical properties, ease of shell modification, and highly efficient and selective intrinsic protein packaging capabilities. Here, we expand encapsulin function by designing and characterizing encapsulins for concurrent RNA and protein encapsulation in vivo. Our strategy is based on modifying encapsulin shells with nucleic acid binding peptides without disrupting the native protein packaging mechanism. We show that our engineered encapsulins reliably self-assemble in vivo, are capable of efficient size-selective in vivo RNA packaging, can simultaneously load multiple functional RNAs, and can be used for concurrent in vivo packaging of RNA and protein. Our engineered encapsulation platform has potential for co-delivery of therapeutic RNAs and proteins to elicit synergistic effects, and as a modular tool for other biotechnological applications.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.