Alteration of Cre recombinase site specificity by substrate-linked protein evolution. |
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Authors: | F Buchholz A F Stewart |
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Affiliation: | Hooper Research Foundation, University of California San Francisco (UCSF), 513 Parnassus Ave., San Francisco, CA 94143-0552, USA. fraenk@itsa.ucsf.edu |
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Abstract: | Directed molecular evolution was applied to generate Cre recombinase variants that recognize a new DNA target sequence. Cre was adapted in a three-stage strategy to evolve recombinases to specifically recombine the new site. This complex multicycle task was made feasible by an improved directed-evolution procedure that relies on placing the recombination substrate next to the recombinase coding region. Consequently, those DNA molecules carrying the coding region for a successful recombinase are physically marked by the action of that recombinase on the linked substrate and are easily retrieved from a large background of unsuccessful candidates by PCR amplification. We term this procedure substrate-linked protein evolution (SLiPE). The method should facilitate the development of new recombinases and other DNA-modifying enzymes for applications in genetic engineering, functional genomics, and gene therapy. |
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