酶分子体外定向进化的研究进展

分子体外定向进化是改造酶分子的新策略,它主要通过体外模拟自然进化机制,利用基因随机突变、重组和定向筛选技术,使进化过程朝着人们需要的方向发展。简要介绍了酶分子体外定向进化的发展历史,详细介绍了突变文库构建和筛选方法的最新研究进展及应用情况。     

Directed Evolution of Enzymes for Biocatalytic Applications

Directed molecular evolution is a rapidly growing field revolutionizing the development of biocatalysts with improved properties. This review describes methods to create mutant libraries and assays for rapid screening or selection of desired variants. Selected examples emphasizing the evolution of enzymes for applications in biocatalysis show that it is possible to alter substrate specificity, modulate enantioselectivity and increase enzyme performance under process conditions.     

Directed evolution of enzymes and pathways for industrial biocatalysis

Directed evolution has become a powerful tool for developing enzyme and whole cell based biocatalysts. Significant recent advances include the creation of novel enzyme functions and the development of several new efficient directed evolution methods. The combination of directed evolution and rational design promises to accelerate the development of biocatalysts for applications in the pharmaceutical, chemical and food industries.     

Enantioselective biocatalysis optimized by directed evolution

Directed evolution methods are now widely used for the optimization of diverse enzyme properties, which include biotechnologically relevant characteristics like stability, regioselectivity and, in particular, enantioselectivity. In principle, three different approaches are followed to optimize enantioselective reactions: the development of whole-cell biocatalysts through the creation of designer organisms; the optimization of enzymes with existing enantioselectivity for process conditions; and the evolution of novel enantioselective biocatalysts starting from non-selective wild-type enzymes.     

Milestones in directed enzyme evolution

Directed evolution has now been used for over two decades as an alternative to rational design for protein engineering. Protein function, however, is complex, and modifying enzyme activity is a tall order. We can now improve existing enzyme activity, change enzyme selectivity and evolve function de novo using directed evolution. Although directed evolution is now used routinely to improve existing enzyme activity, there are still only a handful of examples where substrate selectivity has been modified sufficiently for practical application, and the de novo evolution of function largely eludes us.     

酶定向进化的研究进展

定向进化在改造酶的性质方面已得到广泛应用,各种建立突变库的方法不断涌现。对新近发展的几种突变技术(如寡核苷酸设计型装配重组技术ADO、非序列同源蛋白重组SHIPREC等)进行了简要地介绍与分类。与突变技术相对应的筛选方法也在逐渐改变和完善,这里仅介绍高通量筛选方面的一些最新进展。     

Advances in directed molecular evolution of reporter genes

Many reporter genes, such as gfp, gusA, and lacZ, are widely used for research into plants, animals, and microorganisms. Reporter genes, which offer high levels of sensitivity and convenience of detection, have been utilized in transgenic technology, promoter analysis, drug screening, and other areas. Directed molecular evolution is a powerful molecular tool for the creation of designer proteins for industrial and research applications, including studies of protein structure and function. Directed molecular evolution is based mainly on in vitro recombination methods, such as error-prone PCR and DNA shuffling. The strategies of directed evolution of enzyme biocatalysts have been the subject of several recent reviews. Here, we briefly summarize successes in the field of directed molecular evolution of reporter genes and discuss some of the applications.     

Expanding the nucleotide and sugar 1-phosphate promiscuity of nucleotidyltransferase RmlA via directed evolution

Directed evolution is a valuable technique to improve enzyme activity in the absence of a priori structural knowledge, which can be typically enhanced via structure-guided strategies. In this study, a combination of both whole-gene error-prone polymerase chain reaction and site-saturation mutagenesis enabled the rapid identification of mutations that improved RmlA activity toward non-native substrates. These mutations have been shown to improve activities over 10-fold for several targeted substrates, including non-native pyrimidine- and purine-based NTPs as well as non-native D- and L-sugars (both α- and β-isomers). This study highlights the first broadly applicable high throughput sugar-1-phosphate nucleotidyltransferase screen and the first proof of concept for the directed evolution of this enzyme class toward the identification of uniquely permissive RmlA variants.     

启动子和细胞全局转录机制的定向进化在微生物代谢工程中的应用

通过随机突变和定向选择而进行的定向进化(又称分子进化或人工进化)在改造酶的催化特性和稳定性、扩展酶的底物范围等方面具有广泛的应用。近年来,定向进化也开始应用在对结构基因的启动子区域和具有调节功能的蛋白如转录因子等进行代谢工程改造,并成功选育了对环境胁迫因素具有较强耐受性,以及发酵效率提高的微生物菌种。以下着重介绍近年来启动子的定向进化,包括启动子的强度和调节功能的分子进化,以及细胞全局转录工程等技术在微生物代谢工程中的应用,这些定向进化技术使人们可以更精细地调节基因表达水平,并可同时改变细胞内多个基因的转录水平,是代谢工程研究新的有力工具。     

Directed evolution: an approach to engineer enzymes

Directed evolution is being used increasingly in industrial and academic laboratories to modify and improve commercially important enzymes. Laboratory evolution is thought to make its biggest contribution in explorations of non-natural functions, by allowing us to distinguish the properties nurtured by evolution. In this review we report the significant advances achieved with respect to the methods of biocatalyst improvement and some critical properties and applications of the modified enzymes. The application of directed evolution has been elaborately demonstrated for protein solubility, stability and catalytic efficiency. Modification of certain enzymes for their application in enantioselective catalysis has also been elucidated. By providing a simple and reliable route to enzyme improvement, directed evolution has emerged as a key technology for enzyme engineering and biocatalysis.     

High-throughput screening of enzyme libraries

Directed evolution is becoming a widely used technique for modifying or enhancing protein performance. Ultimately, the success of directed protein evolution experiments hinges on the efficiency of the methods used to screen libraries for mutants with properties of interest. Although there is still a paucity of general methods for enzyme library screening, in recent years a number of promising strategies have emerged and are increasingly being used to explore challenging issues in protein engineering.     

Advances in directed molecular evolution of reporter genes

Many reporter genes, such as gfp, gusA, and lacZ, are widely used for research into plants, animals, and microorganisms. Reporter genes, which offer high levels of sensitivity and convenience of detection, have been utilized in transgenic technology, promoter analysis, drug screening, and other areas. Directed molecular evolution is a powerful molecular tool for the creation of designer proteins for industrial and research applications, including studies of protein structure and function. Directed molecular evolution is based mainly on in vitro recombination methods, such as error-prone PCR and DNA shuffling. The strategies of directed evolution of enzyme biocatalysts have been the subject of several recent reviews. Here, we briefly summarize successes in the field of directed molecular evolution of reporter genes and discuss some of the applications.     

酶的分子定向进化及其应用

酶的分子定向进化是20世纪90年代初兴起的一种蛋白质工程的新策略,是一种在生物体外模拟自然进化过程的、具有一定目的性的快速改造蛋A质的方法.该方法引起了生物催化技术领域的又一次革命.目前分子定向进化技术已被广泛应用于工业、农业及制药业等的相关领域.本文详细综述了酶的分子定向进化的概念、过程、基本策略及其核心技术,并着重介绍了酶的分子定向进化技术在提高酶的活力、稳定性、底物特异性和对映体选择性等几方面的应用及取得的相关成果.     

Directed Evolution: An Approach to Engineer Enzymes

ABSTRACT

Directed evolution is being used increasingly in industrial and academic laboratories to modify and improve commercially important enzymes. Laboratory evolution is thought to make its biggest contribution in explorations of non-natural functions, by allowing us to distinguish the properties nurtured by evolution. In this review we report the significant advances achieved with respect to the methods of biocatalyst improvement and some critical properties and applications of the modified enzymes. The application of directed evolution has been elaborately demonstrated for protein solubility, stability and catalytic efficiency. Modification of certain enzymes for their application in enantioselective catalysis has also been elucidated. By providing a simple and reliable route to enzyme improvement, directed evolution has emerged as a key technology for enzyme engineering and biocatalysis.     

Directed evolution of trimethoprim resistance in Escherichia coli

Directed evolution is a useful tool in the study of enzymes. It is used in this study to investigate the means by which resistance to the antibiotic trimethoprim develops in dihyrofolate reductase from Escherichia coli. Mutants with clinical levels of resistance were obtained after only three generations. After four generations of directed evolution, several mutants were characterized, along with some point mutants made to investigate amino acid changes of interest. Several mutations were found to grant resistance to trimethoprim, both by reducing the binding affinity of the enzyme for the drug, and by increasing the activity of the enzyme.     

Directed evolution of the promiscuous esterase activity of carbonic anhydrase II

A promiscuous activity of an existing enzyme can confer an evolutionary advantage by providing an immediate response to a new selection pressure and a starting point for the divergence of a new enzyme. This work seeks to examine how this process might take place. Human carbonic anhydrase II (hCAII) is an enzyme that evolved to catalyze the reversible hydration of CO(2) and performs this task at a remarkable rate (k(cat) approximately 10(6) s(-)(1)). hCAII also exhibits promiscuous activity toward highly activated esters such as 4-nitrophenyl acetate. We describe a much weaker esterase activity of hCAII toward the bulkier and much less activated ester substrate 2-naphthyl acetate (2NA). Directed evolution of hCAII produced a variant with 40-fold higher rates toward 2NA, owing to two mutations: one within the active site (Ala65Val) and one at its mouth (Thr200Ala). Structure-activity studies suggest that these mutations led to adaptation of the active site for bulkier substrates and for the catalysis of nonactivated esters. The mutations did not, however, significantly alter the native activity of hCAII. Our results support the notion that the evolution of a new function can be driven by mutations that increase a promiscuous function (which serves as the starting point for the evolutionary process) but do not harm the native function.     

随机突变文库构建与筛选研究进展

定向进化是一个循环过程,在构建多样化基因序列和筛选功能基因变体之间交替进行.该技术目前已被广泛应用于DNA序列、基因功能和蛋白质结构的优化和分析.定向进化包括随机基因文库的生成、基因在合适宿主中的表达和突变文库的筛选.构建基因文库的关键是库容量和突变多样性,而筛选变体的关键是高灵敏度和高通量.文中讨论了定向进化技术的最...     

Selection strategies for improved biocatalysts

Enzymes have become an attractive alternative to conventional catalysts in numerous industrial processes. However, their properties do not always meet the criteria of the application of interest. Directed evolution is a powerful tool for adopting the characteristics of an enzyme. However, selection of the evolved variants is a critical step, and therefore new strategies to enable selection of the desired enzymatic activity have been developed. This review focuses on these novel strategies for selecting enzymes from large libraries, in particular those that are used in the synthesis of pharmaceutical intermediates and pharmaceuticals.     

Strategy and success for the directed evolution of enzymes

Directed evolution is widely used to improve enzymes, particularly for industrial biocatalytic processes. Molecular biology advances present many new strategies for directed evolution. Commonly used techniques have led to many successful examples of enzyme improvement, yet there is still a need to improve both the efficiency and capability of directed evolution. Recent strategies aimed at making directed evolution faster and more efficient take better advantage of available structural and sequence information. The underlying principles that lead to early dead-ends for directed evolution experiments are also discussed along with recent strategies designed to by-pass them. Several emerging methods for creating novel enzymes are also discussed including examples of catalytic activity for which there is no precedent in nature. Finally, the combined use of several strategies is likely to be required in practice to improve multiple target properties of an enzyme, as successfully shown by a recent industrial example.     

Evolving strategies for enzyme engineering

Directed evolution is a common technique to engineer enzymes for a diverse set of applications. Structural information and an understanding of how proteins respond to mutation and recombination are being used to develop improved directed evolution strategies by increasing the probability that mutant sequences have the desired properties. Strategies that target mutagenesis to particular regions of a protein or use recombination to introduce large sequence changes can complement full-gene random mutagenesis and pave the way to achieving ever more ambitious enzyme engineering goals.