酶的定向进化研究及其在工业生物催化中的应用

综合概括了各种蛋白质改造与微生物代谢途径改造的非理性定向进化技术的原理、特点,介绍了这些技术在高性能工业生物催化剂改造中的应用。     

蛋白质定向进化的研究进展

在工业生物催化过程和生物细胞工厂构建方面,蛋白质定向进化被广泛地应用于酶的分子改造.蛋白质定向进化不仅可以针对某一目的蛋白进行改造,还可以改善代谢途径、优化代谢网络、获得期望表型细胞.为了获得更高效的突变效率,快捷、高通量的筛选方法,提高蛋白质定向进化的效果,研究者不断开发蛋白质体内、体外进化方法,取得了新的进展和应用.本文介绍了最近发展的蛋白质定向进化技术的原理、方法及特点,总结了突变文库的筛选方法和蛋白质定向进化的最新应用,最后讨论了蛋白质定向进化存在的挑战和未来发展方向.     

蛋白质定向进化的研究技术及应用

蛋白质定向进化是在人类改造蛋白质的过程中产生的。蛋白质定向进化通常分三步进行,即随机诱变、体外重组和筛选。每一步都有多种研究技术。蛋白质定向进化大大加速了人类改造蛋白质的步伐,在实际应用研究和基础理论研究中都具有重要意义。     

蛋白质定向进化的研究进展及其应用前景

定向进化是改造蛋白质分子的有效新策略.它不需要了解蛋白质的空间结构,主要通过在实验室里模拟自然进化过程,采用错误倾向PCR等方法对编码蛋白质的基因进行随机突变,经DNA改组、交错延伸等技术进行体外重组,设计高通量筛选方法来选出需要的突变体.本综述了定向进化技术的发展及应用.     

蛋白质新功能定向进化研究策略

利用定向进化策略改造蛋白质功能已经在农业、工业和医药等领域得到了广泛的应用.蛋白质工程的最新进展是利用定向进化策略对自然界蛋白质引入新功能,但由于其决定因素比较复杂,是研究者面临的一个重大挑战.详细介绍了国外近年发展的蛋白质新功能定向进化研究策略:对传统突变体库构建策略进行改进以及非同源重组改造技术的开发,是早期引入蛋白质新功能的常用手段,利用计算/理性设计与定向进化相结合引入蛋白质新功能是近年定向进化研究的一个重大突破,而噬菌体展示技术是蛋白质新功能筛选的主要策略.蛋白质新功能的分子进化模型已逐渐成为蛋白质工程改造的新思路.     

微生物脂肪酶稳定性研究进展

脂肪酶广泛应用于食品、药物、生物燃料、诊断、生物修复、化学品、化妆品、清洁剂、饲料、皮革和生物传感器等工业领域,微生物脂肪酶是商品化脂肪酶的重要来源。高温、酸性、碱性和有机溶剂等恶劣的工业生产环境使得脂肪酶的进一步工业应用受到限制,获取稳定性好的脂肪酶成为打破这一限制的关键环节。本文重点对提高微生物脂肪酶稳定性的策略进行了综述:挖掘极端微生物脂肪酶资源;利用定向进化、理性设计和半理性设计等蛋白质工程策略改造脂肪酶;利用物理吸附、封装、共价结合和交联等酶的固定化技术提高脂肪酶的稳定性;利用物理/化学修饰、表面展示以及多种改良策略相结合提高脂肪酶的稳定性。结合作者前期对酶工程的研究发现,新型酶催化剂的获得应该基于明确的设计思路,结合多种改造方法,基于定向进化-理性设计、定向进化-半理性设计、蛋白质工程-酶的固定化、蛋白质工程-物理/化学修饰、酶的固定化-物理/化学修饰等组合改造,比单一的改造方法具有更高的效率。     

蛋白质体外进化建库技术研究

蛋白质体外进化技术是蛋白质工程发展的一个里程碑,也是改造蛋白质的一种有效工具。它不仅具有重要的应用价值,而且有助于蛋白质结构与功能的研究。通过蛋白质体外进化技术已成功地改造了许多蛋白质,有些已应用于工农业生产。体外进化技术分为两步:建库和筛选。本文主要对蛋白质体外进化策略及对体外随机突变技术、DNA重组技术、利用活细胞自身修复系统构建突变文库等几种定向进化突变文库建立技术进行了介绍与论述,同时还对蛋白质体外进化技术的应用及与其它学科结合的研究前景进行了分析,为获得具有改进功能或全新功能的蛋白质提供理论基础。     

后基因组时代基因组重排在微生物菌种选育中的应用及展望

基因组重排作为一种实用高效的育种技术,在缺乏遗传背景认知和可操作遗传体系等条件下,可以突破微生物种属间的限制,经过多轮递推的原生质体融合来加速其人工定向进化,在微生物菌种改良及代谢产物开发和产业化等研究领域得到了广泛应用。步入后基因组时代,快速发展的组学和生物信息学使基因组重排成为连接各种微生物育种方法的重要纽带,为我们深入探索微生物复杂的代谢网络和全局调控机制,更为精准地实施对微生物的人工调控和定向进化提供了契机。本文系统性地回顾了近年来基因组重排在微生物菌种选育中的应用研究,尤其针对围绕其开展的组学研究进行了详细阐述,并对基因组重排与组学、生物信息学和合成生物学等新兴技术的联合应用进行了展望。     

蛋白质定向进化技术的研究进展

蛋白质定向进化技术是蛋白质分子改造的一个重要策略.重点介绍了易错PCR、DNA改组等对编码蛋白质的基因进行随机突变和重组的技术,以及构建突变体库和高通量筛选的方法,并探讨了定向进化技术在蛋白质工程中的应用及前景.     

放线菌基因组与生物技术

天蓝色链霉菌全基因组序列的公布 ,对目前工业生产生物活性代谢产物菌株的遗传改造 ,构建生产高价值药物的超级菌 ,以及由微生物资源去寻找新的生物活性代谢产物将产生巨大影响。文中就基因组时代如何发展由基因组信息和化合物库预测次生代谢路径、研究功能基因组学时代的放线菌次生代谢调控、基因工程技术在放线菌抗生素生产中的应用以及体外分子定向进化与分子育种等生物技术问题进行文献综述。     

Expanding the metabolic engineering toolbox with directed evolution

Cellular systems can be engineered into factories that produce high-value chemicals from renewable feedstock. Such an approach requires an expanded toolbox for metabolic engineering. Recently, protein engineering and directed evolution strategies have started to play a growing and critical role within metabolic engineering. This review focuses on the various ways in which directed evolution can be applied in conjunction with metabolic engineering to improve product yields. Specifically, we discuss the application of directed evolution on both catalytic and non-catalytic traits of enzymes, on regulatory elements, and on whole genomes in a metabolic engineering context. We demonstrate how the goals of metabolic pathway engineering can be achieved in part through evolving cellular parts as opposed to traditional approaches that rely on gene overexpression and deletion. Finally, we discuss the current limitations in screening technology that hinder the full implementation of a metabolic pathway-directed evolution approach.     

微生物代谢工程原理与应用

代谢工程是利用分子生物学原理系统分析细胞代谢网络,并通过DNA重组技术和应用分析生物学相关的遗传学手段对细胞进行有精确目标的基因操作,改变微生物原有的代谢或调节系统,实现目的产物代谢活性的提高。代谢工程综合了生物化学、化学工程、数学分析等多学科内容,是当前国内外学者研究热点之一。论述了微生物代谢工程的理论基础及其应用进展和前景。     

Directed evolution of novel protein functions

Directed evolution has been successfully used to engineer proteins for basic and applied biological research. However, engineering of novel protein functions by directed evolution remains an overwhelming challenge. This challenge may come from the fact that multiple simultaneously or synergistic mutations are required for the creation of a novel protein function. Here we review the key developments in engineering of novel protein functions by using either directed evolution or a combined directed evolution and rational or computational design approach. Specific attention will be paid to a molecular evolution model for generation of novel proteins. The engineered novel proteins should not only broaden the range of applications of proteins but also provide new insights into protein structure-function relationship and protein evolution.     

Engineering an SspB-mediated degron for novel controllable protein degradation

Elegant controllable protein degradation tools have great applications in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology designs. SspB-mediated ClpXP proteolysis system is well characterized, and SspB acts as an adaptor tethering ssrA-tagged substrates to the ClpXP protease. This degron was applied in metabolism optimization, but the efficiency was barely satisfactory. Limited high-quality tools are available for controllable protein degradation. By coupling structure-guided modeling and directed evolution, we establish state-of-the-art high-throughput screening strategies for engineering both degradation efficiency and SspB-ssrA binding specificity of this degron. The reliability of our approach is confirmed by functional validation of both SspB and ssrA mutants using fluorescence assays and metabolic engineering of itaconic acid or ferulic acid biosynthesis. Isothermal titration calorimetry analysis and molecular modeling revealed that an appropriate instead of excessively strong interaction between SspB and ssrA benefited degradation efficiency. Mutated SspB-ssrA pairs with 7–22-fold higher binding K_D than the wild-type pair led to higher degradation efficiency, revealing the advantage of directed evolution over rational design in degradation efficiency optimization. Furthermore, an artificial SspB-ssrA pair exhibiting low crosstalk of interactions with the wild-type SspB-ssrA pair was also developed. Efforts in this study have demonstrated the plasticity of SspB-ssrA binding pocket for designing high-quality controllable protein degradation tools. The obtained mutated degrons enriched the tool box of metabolic engineering designs.     

From molecular engineering to process engineering: development of high-throughput screening methods in enzyme directed evolution

With increasing concerns in sustainable development, biocatalysis has been recognized as a competitive alternative to traditional chemical routes in the past decades. As nature’s biocatalysts, enzymes are able to catalyze a broad range of chemical transformations, not only with mild reaction conditions but also with high activity and selectivity. However, the insufficient activity or enantioselectivity of natural enzymes toward non-natural substrates limits their industrial application, while directed evolution provides a potent solution to this problem, thanks to its independence on detailed knowledge about the relationship between sequence, structure, and mechanism/function of the enzymes. A proper high-throughput screening (HTS) method is the key to successful and efficient directed evolution. In recent years, huge varieties of HTS methods have been developed for rapid evaluation of mutant libraries, ranging from in vitro screening to in vivo selection, from indicator addition to multi-enzyme system construction, and from plate screening to computation- or machine-assisted screening. Recently, there is a tendency to integrate directed evolution with metabolic engineering in biosynthesis, using metabolites as HTS indicators, which implies that directed evolution has transformed from molecular engineering to process engineering. This paper aims to provide an overview of HTS methods categorized based on the reaction principles or types by summarizing related studies published in recent years including the work from our group, to discuss assay design strategies and typical examples of HTS methods, and to share our understanding on HTS method development for directed evolution of enzymes involved in specific catalytic reactions or metabolic pathways.

     

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.     

Adaptive laboratory evolution--harnessing the power of biology for metabolic engineering

Adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) strategies allow for the metabolic engineering of microorganisms by combining genetic variation with the selection of beneficial mutations in an unbiased fashion. These ALE strategies have been proven highly effective in the optimization of production strains. In contrast to rational engineering strategies and directed modification of specific enzymes, ALE has the advantage of letting nonintuitive beneficial mutations occur in many different genes and regulatory regions in parallel. So far, the majority of applications of ALE in metabolic engineering have used well-characterized platform organisms such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli; however, applications for other microorganisms are on the rise. This review will focus on current applications of ALE as a tool for metabolic engineering and discuss advancements and achievements that have been made in this field.     

Improvement of hairy root cultures and plants by changing biosynthetic pathways leading to pharmaceutical metabolites: Strategies and applications

A plethora of bioactive plant metabolites has been explored for pharmaceutical, food chemistry and agricultural applications. The chemical synthesis of these structures is often difficult, so plants are favorably used as producers. While whole plants can serve as a source for secondary metabolites and can be also improved by metabolic engineering, more often cell or organ cultures of relevant plant species are of interest. It should be noted that only in few cases the production for commercial application in such cultures has been achieved. Their genetic manipulation is sometimes faster and the production of a specific metabolite is more reliable, because of less environmental influences. In addition, upscaling in bioreactors is nowadays possible for many of these cultures, so some are already used in industry. There are approaches to alter the profile of metabolites not only by using plant genes, but also by using bacterial genes encoding modifying enzymes. Also, strategies to cope with unwanted or even toxic compounds are available. The need for metabolic engineering of plant secondary metabolite pathways is increasing with the rising demand for (novel) compounds with new bioactive properties. Here, we give some examples of recent developments for the metabolic engineering of plants and organ cultures, which can be used in the production of metabolites with interesting properties.     

Using continuous directed evolution to improve enzymes for plant applications

Continuous directed evolution of enzymes and other proteins in microbial hosts is capable of outperforming classical directed evolution by executing hypermutation and selection concurrently in vivo, at scale, with minimal manual input. Provided that a target enzyme’s activity can be coupled to growth of the host cells, the activity can be improved simply by selecting for growth. Like all directed evolution, the continuous version requires no prior mechanistic knowledge of the target. Continuous directed evolution is thus a powerful way to modify plant or non-plant enzymes for use in plant metabolic research and engineering. Here, we first describe the basic features of the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) OrthoRep system for continuous directed evolution and compare it briefly with other systems. We then give a step-by-step account of three ways in which OrthoRep can be deployed to evolve primary metabolic enzymes, using a THI4 thiazole synthase as an example and illustrating the mutational outcomes obtained. We close by outlining applications of OrthoRep that serve growing demands (i) to change the characteristics of plant enzymes destined for return to plants, and (ii) to adapt (“plantize”) enzymes from prokaryotes—especially exotic prokaryotes—to function well in mild, plant-like conditions.

Continuous directed evolution using the yeast OrthoRep system is a powerful way to improve enzymes for use in plant engineering as illustrated by “plantizing” a bacterial thiamin synthesis enzyme.     

Engineering carotenoid production in mammalian cells for nutritionally enhanced cell-cultured foods

Metabolic engineering of mammalian cells has to-date focused primarily on biopharmaceutical protein production or the manipulation of native metabolic processes towards therapeutic aims. However, significant potential exists for expanding these techniques to diverse applications by looking across the taxonomic tree to bioactive metabolites not synthesized in animals. Namely, cross-taxa metabolic engineering of mammalian cells could offer value in applications ranging fromfood and nutrition to regenerative medicine and gene therapy. Towards the former, recent advances in meat production through cell culture suggest the potential to produce meat with fine cellular control, where tuning composition through cross-taxa metabolic engineering could enhance nutrition and food-functionality. Here we demonstrate this possibility by engineering primary bovine and immortalized murine muscle cells with prokaryotic enzymes to endogenously produce the antioxidant carotenoids phytoene, lycopene and β-carotene. These phytonutrients offer general nutritive value and protective effects against diseases associated with red and processed meat consumption, and so offer a promising proof-of-concept for nutritional engineering in cultured meat. We demonstrate the phenotypic integrity of engineered cells, the ability to tune carotenoid yields, and the antioxidant functionality of these compounds in vitro towards both nutrition and food-quality objectives. Our results demonstrate the potential for tailoring the nutritional profile of cultured meats. They further lay a foundation for heterologous metabolic engineering of mammalian cells for applications outside of the clinical realm.