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.     

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.     

Development of a formaldehyde biosensor with application to synthetic methylotrophy

Formaldehyde is a prevalent environmental toxin and a key intermediate in single carbon metabolism. The ability to monitor formaldehyde concentration is, therefore, of interest for both environmental monitoring and for metabolic engineering of native and synthetic methylotrophs, but current methods suffer from low sensitivity, complex workflows, or require expensive analytical equipment. Here we develop a formaldehyde biosensor based on the FrmR repressor protein and cognate promoter of Escherichia coli. Optimization of the native repressor binding site and regulatory architecture enabled detection at levels as low as 1 µM. We then used the sensor to benchmark the in vivo activity of several NAD‐dependent methanol dehydrogenase (Mdh) variants, the rate‐limiting enzyme that catalyzes the first step of methanol assimilation. In order to use this biosensor to distinguish individuals in a mixed population of Mdh variants, we developed a strategy to prevent cross‐talk by using glutathione as a formaldehyde sink to minimize intercellular formaldehyde diffusion. Finally, we applied this biosensor to balance expression of mdh and the formaldehyde assimilation enzymes hps and phi in an engineered E. coli strain to minimize formaldehyde build‐up while also reducing the burden of heterologous expression. This biosensor offers a quick and simple method for sensitively detecting formaldehyde, and has the potential to be used as the basis for directed evolution of Mdh and dynamic formaldehyde control strategies for establishing synthetic methylotrophy.     

Plant ERD2-like proteins function as endoplasmic reticulum luminal protein receptors and participate in programmed cell death during innate immunity

Plant secondary metabolites, such as those derived from the phenylpropanoid pathway, have a beneficial effect on human health. Manipulation of metabolic flux in the phenylpropanoid pathway is important for achieving enhanced production of compounds such as anthocyanins, flavonoids and isoflavonoids. Here, we describe the development of a high-throughput molecular evolution approach that can be used for catalytic improvement of at least four key phenylpropanoid pathway enzymes, within the context of the metabolic pathway. This method uses yeast cells that express plant phenylpropanoid pathway enzymes, leading to formation of a colored intermediate that can be used as a readout in high-throughput screening. Here we report the identification of improved tomato peel 4-coumarate:CoA ligase variants using this approach. We found that the wild-type enzyme is strongly allosterically inhibited by naringenin, a downstream product of the pathway. Surprisingly, at least two of the improved variants are completely insensitive to feedback inhibition by naringenin. We suggest that this inhibition is exerted through a unique and previously unrecognized allosteric domain.     

Directed evolution of enzymes for applied biocatalysis

Directed evolution has rapidly emerged as a powerful new strategy for improving the characteristics of enzymes in a targeted manner. By coupling various protocols for generating large variant libraries of genes, together with high-throughput screens that select for specific properties of an enzyme, such as thermostability, catalytic activity and substrate specificity, it is now possible to optimize biocatalysts for specific applications. However, further work is required to broaden the range of screens that can be used, particularly in terms of reaction type, such as hydroxylation and carbon-carbon bond formation, and functional characteristics, such as enantioselectivity and regioselectivity, so that directed evolution can be used in a routine manner for biocatalyst development.     

Engineering lipases for temperature adaptation: Structure function correlation

Bacillus lipases are industrially attractive enzymes due to their broad substrate specificity and optimum alkaline pH. However, narrow temperature range of action and low thermostability restrain their optimal use and thus, necessitate attention. Several laboratories are engaged in protein engineering of Bacillus lipases to generate variants with improved attributes for decades using techniques such as directed evolution or rational design. This review summarizes the effect of mutations on the conformational changes through in silico modeling and their manifestation with respect to various biochemical parameters. Various studies have been put together to develop a perspective on the molecular basis of biocatalysis of lipases holding industrial importance.     

Altering the Substrate Specificity of Organophosphorus Hydrolase for Enhanced Hydrolysis of Chlorpyrifos

Chlorpyrifos is one of the most popular pesticides used for agriculture crop protection, and widespread contamination is a potential concern. However, chlorpyrifos is hydrolyzed almost 1,000-fold slower than the preferred substrate, paraoxon, by organophosphorus hydrolase (OPH), an enzyme that can degrade a broad range of organophosphate pesticides. We have recently demonstrated that directed evolution can be used to generate OPH variants with up to 25-fold improvement in hydrolysis of methyl parathion. The obvious question and challenge are whether similar success could be achieved with this poorly hydrolyzed substrate, chlorpyrifos. For this study, five improved variants were selected from two rounds of directed evolution based on the formation of clear haloes on Luria-Bertani plates overlaid with chlorpyrifos. One variant, B3561, exhibited a 725-fold increase in the k_cat/K_m value for chlorpyrifos hydrolysis as well as enhanced hydrolysis rates for several other OP compounds tested. Considering that wild-type OPH hydrolyzes paraoxon at a rate close to the diffusion control limit, the 39-fold improvement in hydrolysis of paraoxon by B3561 suggests that this variant is one of the most efficient enzymes available to attack a wide spectrum of organophosphate nerve agents.     

Intermediate-sensor assisted push–pull strategy and its application in heterologous deoxyviolacein production in Escherichia coli

Because high-throughput screening tools are typically unavailable when using the pathway-engineering approach, we developed a new strategy, named intermediate sensor-assisted push–pull strategy, which enables sequential pathway optimization by incorporating a biosensor targeting a key pathway intermediate. As proof of concept, we constructed an l-Trp biosensor and used it to optimize the deoxyviolacein biosynthetic pathway, which we divided into two modules with l-Trp being the product of the upstream and the substrate of the downstream module for deoxyviolacein synthesis. Using the biosensor and fluorescence-activated cell sorting, the activities of the two modules were sequentially and independently optimized in Escherichia coli to achieve the desired phenotypes. By this means, we increased the deoxyviolacein titer 4.4-fold (1.92 g/L), which represents the greatest deoxyviolacein production reported. This work suggests that a biosynthetic pathway can be enhanced to produce a value-added secondary metabolite(s) without available end-product screening method by using a central metabolic junction molecule biosensor(s).     

Escherichia coli aceE variants coding pyruvate dehydrogenase improve the generation of pyruvate-derived acetoin

Several chromosomally expressed AceE variants were constructed in Escherichia coli ΔldhA ΔpoxB ΔppsA and compared using glucose as the sole carbon source. These variants were examined in shake flask cultures for growth rate, pyruvate accumulation, and acetoin production via heterologous expression of the budA and budB genes from Enterobacter cloacae ssp. dissolvens. The best acetoin-producing strains were subsequently studied in controlled batch culture at the one-liter scale. PDH variant strains attained up to four-fold greater acetoin than the strain expressing the wild-type PDH. In a repeated batch process, the H106V PDH variant strain attained over 43 g/L of pyruvate-derived products, acetoin (38.5 g/L) and 2R,3R-butanediol (5.0 g/L), corresponding to an effective concentration of 59 g/L considering the dilution. The acetoin yield from glucose was 0.29 g/g with a volumetric productivity of 0.9 g/L·h (0.34 g/g and 1.0 g/L·h total products). The results demonstrate a new tool in pathway engineering, the modification of a key metabolic enzyme to improve the formation of a product via a kinetically slow, introduced pathway. Direct modification of the pathway enzyme offers an alternative to promoter engineering in cases where the promoter is involved in a complex regulatory network.     

A Semi-Rational Approach to Engineering Laccase Enzymes

In order to develop improved laccase-based bio-catalysts, semi-rational mutagenesis of the laccase POXA1b from Pleurotus ostreatus was performed through a combination of directed evolution with elements of rational enzyme modification. The R4 laccase was prepared by joining mutations of previously selected POXA1b random variants. An enhancement of stability features was thus obtained, making the novel enzyme R4 more appropriate as scaffold for directed evolution. A library of 1000 randomly mutated variants of R4 was prepared and screened for the ability of oxidising 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS). One of the variants selected (V148L) for improved activity was also proved to show higher stability than R4 at pH 5, and to retain its high stability at pH 7 and 10. In comparison with the POXA1b wild-type laccase, the semi-rational approach allowed us to develop a more efficient bio-catalyst, rising specific activity on ABTS up to around 5-fold. The new variant was also proved to be both more versatile and more durable than the wild-type enzyme, exhibiting higher activity in wide temperature and pH ranges and higher stability at acidic (t _1/2 at pH 5 = 35 days), neutral (t _1/2 at pH 7 = 38 days) and alkaline (t _1/2 at pH 10 = 62 days) pH values.     

Preparation of human metabolites of propranolol using laboratory-evolved bacterial cytochromes P450

Testing the toxicities and biological activities of the human metabolites of drugs is important for development of safe and effective pharmaceuticals. Producing these metabolites using human cytochrome P450s is difficult, however, because the human enzymes are costly, poorly stable, and slow. We have used directed evolution to generate variants of P450 BM3 from Bacillus megaterium that function via the "peroxide shunt" pathway, using hydrogen peroxide in place of the reductase domain, oxygen and NADPH. Here, we report further evolution of the P450 BM3 heme domain peroxygenase to enhance production of the authentic human metabolites of propranolol by this biocatalytic route. This system offers a versatile, cost-effective, and scaleable route to the synthesis of drug metabolites.     

Altering the substrate specificity of organophosphorus hydrolase for enhanced hydrolysis of chlorpyrifos

Chlorpyrifos is one of the most popular pesticides used for agriculture crop protection, and widespread contamination is a potential concern. However, chlorpyrifos is hydrolyzed almost 1,000-fold slower than the preferred substrate, paraoxon, by organophosphorus hydrolase (OPH), an enzyme that can degrade a broad range of organophosphate pesticides. We have recently demonstrated that directed evolution can be used to generate OPH variants with up to 25-fold improvement in hydrolysis of methyl parathion. The obvious question and challenge are whether similar success could be achieved with this poorly hydrolyzed substrate, chlorpyrifos. For this study, five improved variants were selected from two rounds of directed evolution based on the formation of clear haloes on Luria-Bertani plates overlaid with chlorpyrifos. One variant, B3561, exhibited a 725-fold increase in the k(cat)/K(m) value for chlorpyrifos hydrolysis as well as enhanced hydrolysis rates for several other OP compounds tested. Considering that wild-type OPH hydrolyzes paraoxon at a rate close to the diffusion control limit, the 39-fold improvement in hydrolysis of paraoxon by B3561 suggests that this variant is one of the most efficient enzymes available to attack a wide spectrum of organophosphate nerve agents.     

Application of a very high-throughput digital imaging screen to evolve the enzyme galactose oxidase

Directed evolution has become an important enabling technology for the development of new enzymes in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Some of the most interesting substrates for these enzymes, such as polymers, have poor solubility or form highly viscous solutions and are therefore refractory to traditional high-throughput screens used in directed evolution. We combined digital imaging spectroscopy and a new solid-phase screening method to screen enzyme variants on problematic substrates highly efficiently and show here that the specific activity of the enzyme galactose oxidase can be improved using this technology. One of the variants we isolated, containing the mutation C383S, showed a 16-fold increase in activity, due in part to a 3-fold improvement in K(m). The present methodology should be applicable to the evolution of numerous other enzymes, including polysaccharide-modifying enzymes that could be used for the large-scale synthesis of modified polymers with novel chemical properties.     

Enzyme-mediated hydrogel encapsulation of single cells for high-throughput screening and directed evolution of oxidoreductases

Directed evolution of oxidoreductases to improve their catalytic properties is being ardently pursued in the industrial, biotechnological, and biopharma sectors. Hampering this pursuit are current enzyme screening methods that are limited in terms of throughput, cost, time, and complexity. We present a directed evolution strategy that allows for large-scale one-pot screening of glucose oxidase (GOx) enzyme libraries in well-mixed homogeneous solution. We used GOx variants displayed on the outer cell wall of yeasts to initiate a cascade reaction with horseradish peroxidase (HRP), resulting in peroxidase-mediated phenol cross-coupling and encapsulation of individual cells in well-defined fluorescent alginate hydrogel shells within ~10 min in mixed cell suspensions. Following application of denaturing stress to whole-cell GOx libraries, only cells displaying GOx variants with enhanced stability or catalytic activity were able to carry out the hydrogel encapsulation reaction. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting was then used to isolate the enhanced variants. We characterized three of the newly evolved Aspergillus niger GOx enzyme sequences and found up to ~5-fold higher specific activity, enhanced thermal stability, and differentiable glycosylation patterns. By coupling intracellular gene expression with the rapid formation of an extracellular hydrogel capsule, our system improves high-throughput screening for directed evolution of H ₂O ₂-producing enzymes many folds.     

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。     

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.

     

高通量筛选工具的设计与应用

定向进化方法作为新兴的高效蛋白质工程手段,其内容包括蛋白质突变体文库的构建和有效突变体的快速筛选。高通量筛选方法是定向进化方法的重要组成部分,是成功获得有效突变体的关键。筛选的突变体数量越多,获得有效突变体的几率越大。以下介绍了目前已经成功应用于或有潜力应用于定向进化改造蛋白质的几种高通量筛选工具。高通量筛选工具的不断设计与开发将推动蛋白质工程领域的技术革新。