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.     

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.     

A Cry1Ac Toxin Variant Generated by Directed Evolution has Enhanced Toxicity against Lepidopteran Insects

Cry1Ac insecticidal crystal proteins produced by Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) have become an important natural biological agent for the control of lepidopteran insects. In this study, a cry1Ac toxin gene from Bacillus thuringiensis 4.0718 was modified by using error-prone PCR, staggered extension process (StEP) shuffling combined with Red/ET homologous recombination to investigate the insecticidal activity of delta-endotoxin Cry1Ac. A Cry1Ac toxin variant (designated as T524N) screened by insect bioassay showed increased insecticidal activity against Spodoptera exigua larvae while its original insecticidal activity against Helicoverpa armigera larvae was still retained. The mutant toxin T524N had one amino acid substitution at position 524 relative to the original Cry1Ac toxin, and it can accumulate within the acrystalliferous strain Cry-B and form more but a little smaller bipyramidal crystals than the original Cry1Ac toxin. Analysis of theoretical molecular models of mutant and original Cry1Ac proteins indicated that the mutation T524N located in the loop linking β16–β17 of domain III in Cry1Ac toxin happens in the fourth conserved block which is an arginine-rich region to form a highly hydrophobic surface involving interaction with receptor molecules. This study showed for the first time that single mutation T524N played an essential role in the insecticidal activity. This finding provides the biological evidence of the structural function of domain III in insecticidal activity of the Cry1Ac toxin, which probably leads to a deep understanding between the interaction of toxic proteins and receptor macromolecules.     

The Evolution of the Secreted Regulatory Protein Progranulin

Progranulin is a secreted growth factor that is active in tumorigenesis, wound repair, and inflammation. Haploinsufficiency of the human progranulin gene, GRN, causes frontotemporal dementia. Progranulins are composed of chains of cysteine-rich granulin modules. Modules may be released from progranulin by proteolysis as 6kDa granulin polypeptides. Both intact progranulin and some of the granulin polypeptides are biologically active. The granulin module occurs in certain plant proteases and progranulins are present in early diverging metazoan clades such as the sponges, indicating their ancient evolutionary origin. There is only one Grn gene in mammalian genomes. More gene-rich Grn families occur in teleost fish with between 3 and 6 members per species including short-form Grns that have no tetrapod counterparts. Our goals are to elucidate progranulin and granulin module evolution by investigating (i): the origins of metazoan progranulins (ii): the evolutionary relationships between the single Grn of tetrapods and the multiple Grn genes of fish (iii): the evolution of granulin module architectures of vertebrate progranulins (iv): the conservation of mammalian granulin polypeptide sequences and how the conserved granulin amino acid sequences map to the known three dimensional structures of granulin modules. We report that progranulin-like proteins are present in unicellular eukaryotes that are closely related to metazoa suggesting that progranulin is among the earliest extracellular regulatory proteins still employed by multicellular animals. From the genomes of the elephant shark and coelacanth we identified contemporary representatives of a precursor for short-from Grn genes of ray-finned fish that is lost in tetrapods. In vertebrate Grns pathways of exon duplication resulted in a conserved module architecture at the amino-terminus that is frequently accompanied by an unusual pattern of tandem nearly identical module repeats near the carboxyl-terminus. Polypeptide sequence conservation of mammalian granulin modules identified potential structure-activity relationships that may be informative in designing progranulin based therapeutics.     

Effect of Cleavage Mutants on Syncytium Formation Directed by the Wild-Type Fusion Protein of Newcastle Disease Virus

The effects of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) fusion (F) glycoprotein cleavage mutants on the cleavage and syncytium-forming activity of the wild-type F protein were examined. F protein cleavage mutants were made by altering amino acids in the furin recognition region (amino acids 112 to 116) in the F protein of a virulent strain of NDV. Four mutants were made: Q114P replaced the glutamine residue with proline; K115G replaced lysine with glycine; double mutant K115G, R113G replaced both a lysine and an arginine with glycine residues; and a triple mutant, R112G, K115G, F117L, replaced three amino acids to mimic the sequence found in avirulent strains of NDV. All mutants except Q114P were cleavage negative and fusion negative. However, addition of exogenous trypsin cleaved all mutant F proteins and activated fusion. As expected for an oligomeric protein, the fusion-negative mutants had a dominant negative phenotype: cotransfection of wild-type and mutant F protein cDNAs resulted in an inhibition of syncytium formation. The presence of the mutant F protein did not inhibit cleavage of the wild-type protein. Furthermore, evidence is presented that suggests that the mutant protein and the wild-type protein formed heterooligomers. By measuring the syncytium-forming activity of the wild-type protein at various ratios of expression of mutant and wild-type protein, results were obtained that are most consistent with the notion that the size of the functionally active NDV F protein in these assays is a single oligomer, likely a trimer. That a larger oligomer, containing a mix of both wild-type and mutant F proteins, has partial activity cannot, however, be ruled out.     

Structural Basis for Exquisite Specificity of Affinity Clamps, Synthetic Binding Proteins Generated through Directed Domain-interface Evolution

We have established a new protein-engineering strategy termed “directed domain-interface evolution” that generates a binding site by linking two protein domains and then optimizing the interface between them. Using this strategy, we have generated synthetic two-domain “affinity clamps” using PDZ and fibronectin type III (FN3) domains as the building blocks. While these affinity clamps all had significantly higher affinity toward a target peptide than the underlying PDZ domain, two distinct types of affinity clamps were found in terms of target specificity. One type conserved the specificity of the parent PDZ domain, and the other increased the specificity dramatically. Here, we characterized their specificity profiles using peptide phage-display libraries and scanning mutagenesis, which suggested a significantly enlarged recognition site of the high-specificity affinity clamps. The crystal structure of a high-specificity affinity clamp showed extensive contacts with a portion of the peptide ligand that is not recognized by the parent PDZ domain, thus rationalizing the improvement of the specificity of the affinity clamp. A comparison with another affinity clamp structure showed that, although both had extensive contacts between PDZ and FN3 domains, they exhibited a large offset in the relative position of the two domains. Our results indicate that linked domains could rapidly fuse and evolve as a single functional module, and that the inherent plasticity of domain interfaces allows for the generation of diverse active-site topography. These attributes of directed domain-interface evolution provide facile means to generate synthetic proteins with a broad range of functions.     

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.     

Protein Synthesis Directed by an Arbovirus

In contrast to chick embryo fibroblast protein synthesis, the bulk of the protein synthesis directed by Semliki Forest virus is carried out on membranes. Under conditions where more than 95% of cell protein synthesis was inhibited, viral polysomes could be demonstrated. Viral protein appeared to be produced on polysomes associated with nascent ribonucleic acid strands still attached to the base-paired, double-stranded replicative form of the virus. Very rapid incorporation of virus protein into 140S virus core particles was also demonstrated.     

DNA改组技术在水蛭素实验进化中的应用

蛋白质的改造是生物工程的重大研究课题.由于结构和功能预测的不精确性,而使按照三维结构信息进行定位诱变往往达不到预期的目的.近年来,另一条改造蛋白质的途径有较大的发展,即在实验室条件下模拟生物分子的自然进化,通过变异和靶功能的选择来获得改进性能的蛋白质[1],此过程称为生物分子实验定向进化.DNA改组(DNAshuffling)是一种改造基因和蛋白质的有效实验进化技术[2].它是在体外进行基因随机片段的重组,从而增加基因的多样性,促使有利变异与不利变异分离,通过选择使有利变异得到优化组合[3].DNA改组包含3个步骤:基因的随机片段化,自身引发PCR和重组合PCR.经过DNA改组的突变体库有可能选择到性能更优的突变体.为进行亲和淘选,需将突变体展示在噬菌体的表面[4].     

蛋白质定向进化及其在微生物代谢调控中的应用

蛋白质定向进化是非理性改造蛋白质的一种有效方法。利用蛋白质定向进化技术可以改变代谢流,扩展或构建新的代谢途径,弱化或消除不必要或有害的代谢途径,从而达到提高某种代谢产物产率或降解有害物质的目的。蛋白质定向进化技术在代谢调控中的应用有效拓宽了代谢工程的应用范围。本文介绍了主要的蛋白质定向进化技术如易错PCR技术、DNA改组技术、交错延伸技术和临时模板随机嵌合技术等,评述了蛋白质定向进化技术对微生物细胞代谢中的关键蛋白进行定向改造,从而改善其代谢能力,调控微生物代谢等的应用。     

Gene Expression in Bacteria Directed by Plant-specific Regulatory Sequences

The regulation of gene expression represents a specific process which has different structural and functional requirements in different groups of organisms. It is thus assumed that regulatory sequences of eucaryotes cannot be recognized in procaryotes. This assumption is of interest for risk assessments of the environmental impact of deliberate release experiments with genetically modified organisms. In order to analyse the extent of heterologous gene expression caused by the transfer of plant-specific regulatory sequences into bacteria, we constructed fusions between plant-specific regulatory sequences and the coding regions of the luxAB genes for the luciferase of the bioluminescent bacterium Vibrio harveyi, transferred the fusions into different bacterial species and measured the luminescence to quantify the expression of the luciferase genes. The regulatory sequences investigated included (a) the 35S promoter of the Cauliflower mosaic virus, (b) the B33 promoter of a class I patatin gene of potatoes, (c) the promoter of the ST-LS1 gene of potatoes and (d) the promoter of the rolC gene of Agrobacterium rhizogenes. We could show that in addition to the 35S promoter, which has already been described as being recognized in Escherichia coli, the sequences containing the B33 and the ST-LS1 promoters are recognized in bacteria. Luciferase gene expression promoted by the sequence with the ST-LS1 promoter could be observed in E. coli, Yersinia enterocolitica and Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Comparison of the luminescence caused by fusions between luxAB and different promoters on the chromosome and on an endogenous plasmid of Y. enterocolitica demonstrated that the level of the heterologous gene expression caused by the fragment with the ST-LS1 promoter was within the range of gene expression levels caused by endogenous promoters of Y. enterocolitica.     

蛋白质体外定向进化策略研究进展

定向进化已广泛应用于蛋白质的分子改造,是改善蛋白质特性的最有效策略之一。为了获得更高的突变效率,构建含有更多突变体的文库,不断地发明创新各种高效的蛋白质体外定向进化方法。对近年来出现的几种定向进化方法三核苷酸突变(TriNex)、序列饱和突变(SeSaM)、随机链交换突变法(RAISE)、重叠延伸蛋白域文库法(PDLGO)和迭代饱和突变法(ISM)的原理、特点及应用进行综述。     

Diversifying Carotenoid Biosynthetic Pathways by Directed Evolution

Microorganisms and plants synthesize a diverse array of natural products, many of which have proven indispensable to human health and well-being. Although many thousands of these have been characterized, the space of possible natural products—those that could be made biosynthetically—remains largely unexplored. For decades, this space has largely been the domain of chemists, who have synthesized scores of natural product analogs and have found many with improved or novel functions. New natural products have also been made in recombinant organisms, via engineered biosynthetic pathways. Recently, methods inspired by natural evolution have begun to be applied to the search for new natural products. These methods force pathways to evolve in convenient laboratory organisms, where the products of new pathways can be identified and characterized in high-throughput screening programs. Carotenoid biosynthetic pathways have served as a convenient experimental system with which to demonstrate these ideas. Researchers have mixed, matched, and mutated carotenoid biosynthetic enzymes and screened libraries of these “evolved” pathways for the emergence of new carotenoid products. This has led to dozens of new pathway products not previously known to be made by the assembled enzymes. These new products include whole families of carotenoids built from backbones not found in nature. This review details the strategies and specific methods that have been employed to generate new carotenoid biosynthetic pathways in the laboratory. The potential application of laboratory evolution to other biosynthetic pathways is also discussed.     

Directed Evolution of Insoluble Arabidopsis thaliana Zeta Class Glutathione S-Transferase Mutants for Higher Solubility in Escherichia coli

Expression of recombinant protein in Escherichia coli (E.coli) is generally considered as one of the ideal systems to produce proteins for industrial production.However,the majority of proteins usually fail to fold into their native state and accumulate as insoluble inclusion bodies with no biological activity in E.coli (Yang et al.,2003).Although numerous strategies and approaches are proposed to solve the problem (Nygaard and Harlow,2001;Mogk et al.,2002;Austin,2003),they still fail to improve the solubility of protein and are not ideal for high-throughput applications (Waldo,2003).Furthermore,with the expression condition becoming stricter,the procedures become more complex and the costs grow higher,thus making them inappropriate for application in industrial production.     

Prototrophic Regulatory Mutants of Adenylosuccinate Synthetase in Yeast

MUTANTS of the genes ade12 and ade13 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae require adenine, which suggests that they are defective in the conversion of inosine monophosphate (IMP) to adenosine monophosphate (AMP). Two enzymes are required for this conversion: adenylosuccinate lyase and adenylosuccinate synthetase. The former has been shown to be absent in mutants of ade13 (ref. 1) so that one can infer that ade12 specifies the latter. Mutants of ade12 have been isolated on the basis of an adenine insensitive pigment accumulation by strains carrying ade1 or ade2 (refs. 1 and 2). They seem to synthesize purines constitutively and excrete hypoxanthine¹. These observations suggest that in addition to its catalytic function adenylosuccinate synthetase has an important function in the regulation of purine synthesis.     

High-Activity Barley \bold\ralpha-Amylase by Directed Evolution

Barley -amylase isozyme 2 was cloned into and constitutively secreted by Saccharomyces cervisiae. The gene coding for the wild-type enzyme was subjected to directed evolution. Libraries of mutants were screened by halo formation on starch agar plates, followed by high-throughput liquid assay using dye-labeled starch as the substrate. The concentration of recombinant enzyme in the culture supernatant was determined by immunodetection, and used for the calculation of specific activity. After three rounds of directed evolution, one mutant (Mu322) showed 1000 times the total activity and 20 times the specific activity of the wild-type enzyme produced by the same yeast expression system. Comparison of the amino acid sequence of this mutant with the wild type revealed five substitutions: Q44H, R303K and F325Y in domain A, and T94A and R128Q in domain B. Two of these mutations, Q44H and R303K, result in amino acids highly conserved in cereal -amylases. R303K and F325Y are located in the raw starch-binding fragment of the enzyme molecule.     

Human Antigen-Specific Regulatory T Cells Generated by T Cell Receptor Gene Transfer

Background

Therapies directed at augmenting regulatory T cell (Treg) activities in vivo as a systemic treatment for autoimmune disorders and transplantation may be associated with significant off-target effects, including a generalized immunosuppression that may compromise beneficial immune responses to infections and cancer cells. Adoptive cellular therapies using purified expanded Tregs represents an attractive alternative to systemic treatments, with results from animal studies noting increased therapeutic potency of antigen-specific Tregs over polyclonal populations. However, current methodologies are limited in terms of the capacity to isolate and expand a sufficient quantity of endogenous antigen-specific Tregs for therapeutic intervention. Moreover, FOXP3+ Tregs fall largely within the CD4+ T cell subset and are thus routinely MHC class II-specific, whereas class I-specific Tregs may function optimally in vivo by facilitating direct tissue recognition.

Methodology/Principal Findings

To overcome these limitations, we have developed a novel means for generating large numbers of antigen-specific Tregs involving lentiviral T cell receptor (TCR) gene transfer into in vitro expanded polyclonal natural Treg populations. Tregs redirected with a high-avidity class I-specific TCR were capable of recognizing the melanoma antigen tyrosinase in the context of HLA-A*0201 and could be further enriched during the expansion process by antigen-specific reactivation with peptide loaded artificial antigen presenting cells. These in vitro expanded Tregs continued to express FOXP3 and functional TCRs, and maintained the capacity to suppress conventional T cell responses directed against tyrosinase, as well as bystander T cell responses. Using this methodology in a model tumor system, murine Tregs designed to express the tyrosinase TCR effectively blocked antigen-specific effector T cell (Teff) activity as determined by tumor cell growth and luciferase reporter-based imaging.

Conclusions/Significance

These results support the feasibility of class I-restricted TCR transfer as a promising strategy to redirect the functional properties of Tregs and provide for a more efficacious adoptive cell therapy.     

A Novel,Universally Active C-terminal Protein Degradation Signal Generated by Alternative Splicing

Proteome integrity is crucial for cellular homeostasis and adaptation to stress conditions such as hypoxia. One mechanism for rapid adaptation of the proteome in response to changing environmental signals is alternative splicing. In addition to generating different protein isoforms, alternative splicing is also capable of controlling total protein levels by the regulated synthesis of non-productive mRNA isoforms. The hypoxia-induced isoform E of the tumor suppressor MAX is produced by retention and translation of the last intron. This leads to an alternative C-terminus that harbors a potent C-degron, the isoE degron. Strikingly, the isoE degron represents a universal protein degradation signal that is not only functional in mammalian cells, but also in yeast and even in bacteria. Essential for efficient protein decay is a conserved (F/W)xxW motif. Degradation of isoE tagged proteins is mediated by the proteasome in eukaryotes and Lon protease in bacteria. Thus, the isoE degron is a broadly applicable and highly efficient tool in protein analyses.