Synthetic peptide-induced internalization of biomolecules into various plant and algal cells via micropinocytosis

Efficient intracellular delivery of biomolecules is important for many different biological and biotechnological applications in living organisms, and is a prerequisite for certain types of fundamental and applied research. One major challenge is the delivery of unmodified, functional cargoes in a simple, time-efficient, and high-throughput manner. Herein, we present an efficient strategy that uses fusion peptides containing cell penetrating peptide, endosomal escape domain, and a sarcosine linker to introduce biomolecules, namely fluorescent protein and dextran, via macropinocytosis into the cells of various land plants and microalgae. Our peptide-mediated delivery system allows for high-throughput delivery of functional biomolecules within a few minutes to a few hours as well as open new possibilities for biology and biotechnology using difficult-to-transfect cell types.