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Mabesoone MFJ, Leopold-Messer S, Minas HA, Chepkirui C, Chawengrum P, Reiter S, Meoded RA, Wolf S, Genz F, Magnus N, Piechulla B, Walker AS, Piel J. Evolution-guided engineering of trans-acyltransferase polyketide synthases. Science 2024; 383:1312-1317. [PMID: 38513027 DOI: 10.1126/science.adj7621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Accepted: 02/13/2024] [Indexed: 03/23/2024]
Abstract
Bacterial multimodular polyketide synthases (PKSs) are giant enzymes that generate a wide range of therapeutically important but synthetically challenging natural products. Diversification of polyketide structures can be achieved by engineering these enzymes. However, notwithstanding successes made with textbook cis-acyltransferase (cis-AT) PKSs, tailoring such large assembly lines remains challenging. Unlike textbook PKSs, trans-AT PKSs feature an extraordinary diversity of PKS modules and commonly evolve to form hybrid PKSs. In this study, we analyzed amino acid coevolution to identify a common module site that yields functional PKSs. We used this site to insert and delete diverse PKS parts and create 22 engineered trans-AT PKSs from various pathways and in two bacterial producers. The high success rates of our engineering approach highlight the broader applicability to generate complex designer polyketides.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathijs F J Mabesoone
- Institute of Microbiology, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 4, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Stefan Leopold-Messer
- Institute of Microbiology, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 4, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Hannah A Minas
- Institute of Microbiology, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 4, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Clara Chepkirui
- Institute of Microbiology, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 4, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Pornsuda Chawengrum
- Institute of Microbiology, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 4, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
- Chemical Biology Program, Chulabhorn Graduate Institute, Chulabhorn Royal Academy, Bangkok 10210, Thailand
| | - Silke Reiter
- Institute of Microbiology, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 4, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Roy A Meoded
- Institute of Microbiology, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 4, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Sarah Wolf
- Institute of Microbiology, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 4, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Ferdinand Genz
- Institute of Microbiology, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 4, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Nancy Magnus
- Institute for Biological Sciences, University of Rostock, Albert-Einstein-Straße 3, 18059 Rostock, Germany
| | - Birgit Piechulla
- Institute for Biological Sciences, University of Rostock, Albert-Einstein-Straße 3, 18059 Rostock, Germany
| | - Allison S Walker
- Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, 240 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Department of Chemistry, Vanderbilt University, 1234 Stevenson Center Lane, Nashville, TN 37240, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, 465 21st Avenue S, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
| | - Jörn Piel
- Institute of Microbiology, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 4, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
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2
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Wang X, Li A, Li X, Cui H. Empowering Protein Engineering through Recombination of Beneficial Substitutions. Chemistry 2024; 30:e202303889. [PMID: 38288640 DOI: 10.1002/chem.202303889] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024]
Abstract
Directed evolution stands as a seminal technology for generating novel protein functionalities, a cornerstone in biocatalysis, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology. Today, with the development of various mutagenesis methods and advanced analytical machines, the challenge of diversity generation and high-throughput screening platforms is largely solved, and one of the remaining challenges is: how to empower the potential of single beneficial substitutions with recombination to achieve the epistatic effect. This review overviews experimental and computer-assisted recombination methods in protein engineering campaigns. In addition, integrated and machine learning-guided strategies were highlighted to discuss how these recombination approaches contribute to generating the screening library with better diversity, coverage, and size. A decision tree was finally summarized to guide the further selection of proper recombination strategies in practice, which was beneficial for accelerating protein engineering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xinyue Wang
- School of Food Science and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Normal University, No. 2 Xuelin Road, Nanjing, 210097, China
| | - Anni Li
- School of Food Science and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Normal University, No. 2 Xuelin Road, Nanjing, 210097, China
| | - Xiujuan Li
- School of Food Science and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Normal University, No. 2 Xuelin Road, Nanjing, 210097, China
| | - Haiyang Cui
- School of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, No. 2 Xuelin Road, Nanjing, 210097, China
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3
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Williams RL, Liu CC. Accelerated evolution of chosen genes. Science 2024; 383:372-373. [PMID: 38271527 DOI: 10.1126/science.adn3434] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2024]
Abstract
Orthogonal replication enables rapid continuous biomolecular evolution in Escherichia coli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rory L Williams
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Center for Synthetic Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Chang C Liu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Center for Synthetic Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
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Cribari MA, Unger MJ, Unarta IC, Ogorek AN, Huang X, Martell JD. Ultrahigh-Throughput Directed Evolution of Polymer-Degrading Enzymes Using Yeast Display. J Am Chem Soc 2023; 145:27380-27389. [PMID: 38051911 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c08291] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/07/2023]
Abstract
Enzymes that degrade synthetic polymers have attracted intense interest for eco-friendly plastic recycling. However, because enzymes did not evolve for the cleavage of abiotic polymers, directed evolution strategies are needed to enhance activity for plastic degradation. Previous directed evolution efforts relied on polymer degradation assays that were limited to screening ∼104 mutants. Here, we report a high-throughput yeast surface display platform to rapidly evaluate >107 enzyme mutants for increased activity in cleaving synthetic polymers. In this platform, individual yeast cells display distinct mutants, and enzyme activity is detected by a change in fluorescence upon the cleavage of a synthetic probe resembling a polymer of interest. Highly active mutants are isolated by fluorescence activated cell sorting and identified through DNA sequencing. To demonstrate this platform, we performed directed evolution of a polyethylene terephthalate (PET)-depolymerizing enzyme, leaf and branch compost cutinase (LCC). We identified activity-boosting mutations that substantially increased the kinetics of degradation of solid PET films. Biochemical assays and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the most active variants suggest that the H218Y mutation improves the binding of the enzyme to PET. Overall, this evolution platform increases the screening throughput of polymer-degrading enzymes by 3 orders of magnitude and identifies mutations that enhance kinetics for depolymerizing solid substrates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mario A Cribari
- Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin─Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Maxwell J Unger
- Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin─Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Ilona C Unarta
- Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin─Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
- Theoretical Chemistry Institute, Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin─Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Ashley N Ogorek
- Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin─Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Xuhui Huang
- Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin─Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
- Theoretical Chemistry Institute, Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin─Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Jeffrey D Martell
- Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin─Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
- Carbone Cancer Center, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wisconsin 53705, United States
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5
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Dhar R, Bowman AM, Hatungimana B, Sg Slusky J. Evolutionary Engineering a Larger Porin Using a Loop-to-Hairpin Mechanism. J Mol Biol 2023; 435:168292. [PMID: 37769963 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2023.168292] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2023] [Revised: 09/20/2023] [Accepted: 09/21/2023] [Indexed: 10/03/2023]
Abstract
In protein evolution, diversification is generally driven by genetic duplication. The hallmarks of this mechanism are visible in the repeating topology of various proteins. In outer membrane β-barrels, duplication is visible with β-hairpins as the repeating unit of the barrel. In contrast to the overall use of duplication in diversification, a computational study hypothesized evolutionary mechanisms other than hairpin duplications leading to increases in the number of strands in outer membrane β-barrels. Specifically, the topology of some 16- and 18-stranded β-barrels appear to have evolved through a loop to β-hairpin transition. Here we test this novel evolutionary mechanism by creating a chimeric protein from an 18-stranded β-barrel and an evolutionarily related 16-stranded β-barrel. The chimeric combination of the two was created by replacing loop L3 of the 16-stranded barrel with the sequentially matched transmembrane β-hairpin region of the 18-stranded barrel. We find the resulting chimeric protein is stable and has characteristics of increased strand number. This study provides the first experimental evidence supporting the evolution through a loop to β-hairpin transition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rik Dhar
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA. https://twitter.com/Rik_Skywalker
| | - Alexander M Bowman
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
| | - Brunojoel Hatungimana
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
| | - Joanna Sg Slusky
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA; Computational Biology Program, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66047, USA.
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Abstract
Therapeutic enzymes present excellent opportunities for the treatment of human disease, modulation of metabolic pathways and system detoxification. However, current use of enzyme therapy in the clinic is limited as naturally occurring enzymes are seldom optimal for such applications and require substantial improvement by protein engineering. Engineering strategies such as design and directed evolution that have been successfully implemented for industrial biocatalysis can significantly advance the field of therapeutic enzymes, leading to biocatalysts with new-to-nature therapeutic activities, high selectivity, and suitability for medical applications. This minireview highlights case studies of how state-of-the-art and emerging methods in protein engineering are explored for the generation of therapeutic enzymes and discusses gaps and future opportunities in the field of enzyme therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Freideriki Michailidou
- Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zurich, Schmelzbergstrasse 9, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland
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7
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Ingraham JB, Baranov M, Costello Z, Barber KW, Wang W, Ismail A, Frappier V, Lord DM, Ng-Thow-Hing C, Van Vlack ER, Tie S, Xue V, Cowles SC, Leung A, Rodrigues JV, Morales-Perez CL, Ayoub AM, Green R, Puentes K, Oplinger F, Panwar NV, Obermeyer F, Root AR, Beam AL, Poelwijk FJ, Grigoryan G. Illuminating protein space with a programmable generative model. Nature 2023; 623:1070-1078. [PMID: 37968394 PMCID: PMC10686827 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06728-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2022] [Accepted: 10/06/2023] [Indexed: 11/17/2023]
Abstract
Three billion years of evolution has produced a tremendous diversity of protein molecules1, but the full potential of proteins is likely to be much greater. Accessing this potential has been challenging for both computation and experiments because the space of possible protein molecules is much larger than the space of those likely to have functions. Here we introduce Chroma, a generative model for proteins and protein complexes that can directly sample novel protein structures and sequences, and that can be conditioned to steer the generative process towards desired properties and functions. To enable this, we introduce a diffusion process that respects the conformational statistics of polymer ensembles, an efficient neural architecture for molecular systems that enables long-range reasoning with sub-quadratic scaling, layers for efficiently synthesizing three-dimensional structures of proteins from predicted inter-residue geometries and a general low-temperature sampling algorithm for diffusion models. Chroma achieves protein design as Bayesian inference under external constraints, which can involve symmetries, substructure, shape, semantics and even natural-language prompts. The experimental characterization of 310 proteins shows that sampling from Chroma results in proteins that are highly expressed, fold and have favourable biophysical properties. The crystal structures of two designed proteins exhibit atomistic agreement with Chroma samples (a backbone root-mean-square deviation of around 1.0 Å). With this unified approach to protein design, we hope to accelerate the programming of protein matter to benefit human health, materials science and synthetic biology.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Wujie Wang
- Generate Biomedicines, Somerville, MA, USA
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Shan Tie
- Generate Biomedicines, Somerville, MA, USA
| | | | | | - Alan Leung
- Generate Biomedicines, Somerville, MA, USA
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Guindal AM, Gonzalez R, Tronchoni J, Roodink JS, Morales P. Directed evolution of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for low volatile acidity during winemaking under aerobic conditions. Food Microbiol 2023; 114:104282. [PMID: 37290870 DOI: 10.1016/j.fm.2023.104282] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2022] [Revised: 03/22/2023] [Accepted: 04/05/2023] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The use of yeast respiratory metabolism has been proposed as a promising approach to solve the problem of increasing ethanol content in wine, which is largely due to climate change. The use of S. cerevisiae for this purpose is mostly hampered by acetic acid overproduction generated under the necessary aerobic conditions. However, it was previously shown that a reg1 mutant, alleviated for carbon catabolite repression (CCR), showed low acetic acid production under aerobic conditions. In this work directed evolution of three wine yeast strains was performed to recover CCR-alleviated strains, expecting they will also be improved concerning volatile acidity. This was done by subculturing strains on galactose, in the presence of 2-deoxyglucose for around 140 generations. As expected, all evolved yeast populations released less acetic acid than their parental strains in grape juice, under aerobic conditions. Single clones were isolated from the evolved populations, either directly or after one cycle of aerobic fermentation. Only some clones from one of three original strains showed lower acetic acid production than their parental strain. Most clones isolated from EC1118 showed slower growth. However, even the most promising clones failed to reduce acetic acid production under aerobic conditions in bioreactors. Therefore, despite the concept of selecting low acetic acid producers by using 2-deoxyglucose as selective agent was found to be correct, especially at the population level, the recovery of strains with potential industrial utility by this experimental approach remains a challenge.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea M Guindal
- Instituto de Ciencias de la Vid y del Vino (CSIC, Gobierno de la Rioja, Universidad de La Rioja), Finca La Grajera, Carretera de Burgos km 6, 26007, Logroño, La Rioja, Spain.
| | - Ramon Gonzalez
- Instituto de Ciencias de la Vid y del Vino (CSIC, Gobierno de la Rioja, Universidad de La Rioja), Finca La Grajera, Carretera de Burgos km 6, 26007, Logroño, La Rioja, Spain.
| | - Jordi Tronchoni
- Instituto de Ciencias de la Vid y del Vino (CSIC, Gobierno de la Rioja, Universidad de La Rioja), Finca La Grajera, Carretera de Burgos km 6, 26007, Logroño, La Rioja, Spain; Universidad Internacional de Valencia - VIU, C/ Pintor Sorolla 21, 46002, Valencia, Spain.
| | - Jorik S Roodink
- Instituto de Ciencias de la Vid y del Vino (CSIC, Gobierno de la Rioja, Universidad de La Rioja), Finca La Grajera, Carretera de Burgos km 6, 26007, Logroño, La Rioja, Spain.
| | - Pilar Morales
- Instituto de Ciencias de la Vid y del Vino (CSIC, Gobierno de la Rioja, Universidad de La Rioja), Finca La Grajera, Carretera de Burgos km 6, 26007, Logroño, La Rioja, Spain.
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Liu Z, Chen S, Wu J. Advances in ultrahigh-throughput screening technologies for protein evolution. Trends Biotechnol 2023; 41:1168-1181. [PMID: 37088569 DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2023.03.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2023] [Revised: 02/28/2023] [Accepted: 03/14/2023] [Indexed: 04/25/2023]
Abstract
Inspired by natural evolution, directed evolution randomly mutates the gene of interest through artificial evolution conditions with variants being screened for the required properties. Directed evolution is vital to the enhancement of protein properties and comprises the construction of libraries with considerable diversity as well as screening methods with sufficient efficiency as key steps. Owing to the various characteristics of proteins, specific methods are urgently needed for library screening, which is one of the main limiting factors in accelerating evolution. This review initially organizes the principles of ultrahigh-throughput screening from the perspective of protein properties. It then provides a comprehensive introduction to the latest progress and future trends in ultrahigh-throughput screening technologies for directed evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhanzhi Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu Province, China; School of Biotechnology and Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu Province, China; International Joint Laboratory on Food Safety, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Sheng Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu Province, China; School of Biotechnology and Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu Province, China; International Joint Laboratory on Food Safety, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu Province, China
| | - Jing Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu Province, China; School of Biotechnology and Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu Province, China; International Joint Laboratory on Food Safety, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu Province, China.
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Zhong H, Zhang M, Chen L, Liu W, Tao Y. Development of Schizochytrium sp. strain HS01 with high-DHA and low-saturated fatty acids production by multi-pronged adaptive evolution. Biotechnol Lett 2023; 45:1147-1157. [PMID: 37341820 DOI: 10.1007/s10529-023-03378-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2022] [Revised: 03/18/2023] [Accepted: 04/04/2023] [Indexed: 06/22/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is an important omega-3 unsaturated fatty acid and has been widely applied in medicine, food additives, and feed ingredients. The fermentative production of DHA using microorganisms, including Schizochytrium sp., attracted much attention due to its high production efficiency and environment friendly properties. An efficient laboratory evolution approach was used to improve the strain's performance in this study. METHODS A multi-pronged laboratory evolution approach was applied to evolve high-yield DHA-producing Schizochytrium strain. We further employed comparative transcriptional analysis to identify transcriptional changes between the screened strain HS01 and its parent strain GS00. RESULTS After multiple generations of ALE, a strain HS01 with higher DHA content and lower saturated fatty acids content was obtained. Low nitrogen conditions were important for enhancing DHA biosynthesis in HS01. The comparative transcriptional analysis results indicated that during the fermentation process of HS01, the expression of key enzymes in the glycolysis, the pentose phosphate pathway and the tricarboxylic acid cycle were up-regulated, while the expression of polyketide synthase genes and fatty acid synthesis genes were similar to those in GS00. CONCLUSION The results suggest that the improved DHA production capacity of HS01 is not due to enhancement of the DHA biosynthesis pathway, but rather related to modulation of central metabolism pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huichang Zhong
- CAS Key Laboratory of Microbial Physiological and Metabolic Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
- College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
- Xiamen Huison Biotech Co.,Ltd, Xiamen, 361100, China
| | - Meng Zhang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Microbial Physiological and Metabolic Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Liyi Chen
- Xiamen Huison Biotech Co.,Ltd, Xiamen, 361100, China.
| | - Weifeng Liu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Microbial Physiological and Metabolic Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
- College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
| | - Yong Tao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Microbial Physiological and Metabolic Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
- College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
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11
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Yu T, Boob AG, Singh N, Su Y, Zhao H. In vitro continuous protein evolution empowered by machine learning and automation. Cell Syst 2023; 14:633-644. [PMID: 37224814 DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2023.04.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2022] [Revised: 11/19/2022] [Accepted: 04/20/2023] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Directed evolution has become one of the most successful and powerful tools for protein engineering. However, the efforts required for designing, constructing, and screening a large library of variants can be laborious, time-consuming, and costly. With the recent advent of machine learning (ML) in the directed evolution of proteins, researchers can now evaluate variants in silico and guide a more efficient directed evolution campaign. Furthermore, recent advancements in laboratory automation have enabled the rapid execution of long, complex experiments for high-throughput data acquisition in both industrial and academic settings, thus providing the means to collect a large quantity of data required to develop ML models for protein engineering. In this perspective, we propose a closed-loop in vitro continuous protein evolution framework that leverages the best of both worlds, ML and automation, and provide a brief overview of the recent developments in the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tianhao Yu
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, Urbana, IL, USA; NSF Molecule Maker Lab Institute, Urbana, IL, USA
| | - Aashutosh Girish Boob
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, Urbana, IL, USA; DOE Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - Nilmani Singh
- DOE Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - Yufeng Su
- NSF Molecule Maker Lab Institute, Urbana, IL, USA; Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - Huimin Zhao
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, Urbana, IL, USA; NSF Molecule Maker Lab Institute, Urbana, IL, USA; DOE Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
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12
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McConnell A, Hackel BJ. Protein engineering via sequence-performance mapping. Cell Syst 2023; 14:656-666. [PMID: 37494931 PMCID: PMC10527434 DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2023.06.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2023] [Revised: 05/10/2023] [Accepted: 06/21/2023] [Indexed: 07/28/2023]
Abstract
Discovery and evolution of new and improved proteins has empowered molecular therapeutics, diagnostics, and industrial biotechnology. Discovery and evolution both require efficient screens and effective libraries, although they differ in their challenges because of the absence or presence, respectively, of an initial protein variant with the desired function. A host of high-throughput technologies-experimental and computational-enable efficient screens to identify performant protein variants. In partnership, an informed search of sequence space is needed to overcome the immensity, sparsity, and complexity of the sequence-performance landscape. Early in the historical trajectory of protein engineering, these elements aligned with distinct approaches to identify the most performant sequence: selection from large, randomized combinatorial libraries versus rational computational design. Substantial advances have now emerged from the synergy of these perspectives. Rational design of combinatorial libraries aids the experimental search of sequence space, and high-throughput, high-integrity experimental data inform computational design. At the core of the collaborative interface, efficient protein characterization (rather than mere selection of optimal variants) maps sequence-performance landscapes. Such quantitative maps elucidate the complex relationships between protein sequence and performance-e.g., binding, catalytic efficiency, biological activity, and developability-thereby advancing fundamental protein science and facilitating protein discovery and evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam McConnell
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, 421 Washington Avenue SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Benjamin J Hackel
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, 421 Washington Avenue SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA; Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, 421 Washington Avenue SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
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Zhan Q, Shi C, Jiang Y, Gao X, Lin Y. Efficient splicing of the CPE intein derived from directed evolution of the Cryptococcus neoformans PRP8 intein. Acta Biochim Biophys Sin (Shanghai) 2023; 55:1310-1318. [PMID: 37489009 PMCID: PMC10448054 DOI: 10.3724/abbs.2023135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2023] [Accepted: 03/19/2023] [Indexed: 07/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Intein-mediated protein splicing has been widely used in protein engineering; however, the splicing efficiency and extein specificity usually limit its further application. Thus, there is a demand for more general inteins that can overcome these limitations. Here, we study the trans-splicing of CPE intein obtained from the directed evolution of Cne PRP8, which shows that its splicing rate is ~29- fold higher than that of the wild-type. When the +1 residue of C-extein is changed to cysteine, CPE also shows high splicing activity. Faster association and higher affinity may contribute to the high splicing rate compared with wild-type intein. These findings have important implications for the future engineering of inteins and provide clues for fundamental studies of protein structure and folding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qin Zhan
- College of Biological Science and Medical EngineeringDonghua UniversityShanghai201620China
| | - Changhua Shi
- College of Biological Science and Medical EngineeringDonghua UniversityShanghai201620China
| | - Yu Jiang
- College of Biological Science and Medical EngineeringDonghua UniversityShanghai201620China
| | - Xianling Gao
- Shandong Guoli Biotechnology Co.Ltd.Jinan250101China
| | - Ying Lin
- College of Biological Science and Medical EngineeringDonghua UniversityShanghai201620China
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14
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Yang L, Yang HY, You L, Ni H, Jiang ZD, Du XP, Zhu YB, Zheng MJ, Li LJ, Lin R, Li ZP, Li QB. Transcriptomics analysis and fed-batch regulation of high astaxanthin-producing Phaffia rhodozyma/Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous obtained through adaptive laboratory evolution. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 2023; 50:kuad015. [PMID: 37580133 PMCID: PMC10448994 DOI: 10.1093/jimb/kuad015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2023] [Accepted: 08/12/2023] [Indexed: 08/16/2023]
Abstract
Astaxanthin has high utilization value in functional food because of its strong antioxidant capacity. However, the astaxanthin content of Phaffia rhodozyma is relatively low. Adaptive laboratory evolution is an excellent method to obtain high-yield strains. TiO2 is a good inducer of oxidative stress. In this study, different concentrations of TiO2 were used to domesticate P. rhodozyma, and at a concentration of 1000 mg/L of TiO2 for 105 days, the optimal strain JMU-ALE105 for astaxanthin production was obtained. After fermentation, the astaxanthin content reached 6.50 mg/g, which was 41.61% higher than that of the original strain. The ALE105 strain was fermented by batch and fed-batch, and the astaxanthin content reached 6.81 mg/g. Transcriptomics analysis showed that the astaxanthin synthesis pathway, and fatty acid, pyruvate, and nitrogen metabolism pathway of the ALE105 strain were significantly upregulated. Based on the nitrogen metabolism pathway, the nitrogen source was adjusted by ammonium sulphate fed-batch fermentation, which increased the astaxanthin content, reaching 8.36 mg/g. This study provides a technical basis and theoretical research for promoting industrialization of astaxanthin production of P. rhodozyma. ONE-SENTENCE SUMMARY A high-yield astaxanthin strain (ALE105) was obtained through TiO2 domestication, and its metabolic mechanism was analysed by transcriptomics, which combined with nitrogen source regulation to further improve astaxanthin yield.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liang Yang
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Engineering, Xiamen 361021, China
| | - Hao-Yi Yang
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Engineering, Xiamen 361021, China
| | - Li You
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Engineering, Xiamen 361021, China
| | - Hui Ni
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Engineering, Xiamen 361021, China
- Research Center of Food Biotechnology of Xiamen City, Xiamen 361021, China
| | - Ze-Dong Jiang
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Engineering, Xiamen 361021, China
- Research Center of Food Biotechnology of Xiamen City, Xiamen 361021, China
| | - Xi-Ping Du
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Engineering, Xiamen 361021, China
- Research Center of Food Biotechnology of Xiamen City, Xiamen 361021, China
| | - Yan-Bing Zhu
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Engineering, Xiamen 361021, China
- Research Center of Food Biotechnology of Xiamen City, Xiamen 361021, China
| | - Ming-Jing Zheng
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Engineering, Xiamen 361021, China
- Research Center of Food Biotechnology of Xiamen City, Xiamen 361021, China
| | - Li-Jun Li
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Engineering, Xiamen 361021, China
- Research Center of Food Biotechnology of Xiamen City, Xiamen 361021, China
| | - Rui Lin
- College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, and Research and Development Center for Ocean Observation Technologies, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361008, China
| | - Zhi-Peng Li
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Engineering, Xiamen 361021, China
- Research Center of Food Biotechnology of Xiamen City, Xiamen 361021, China
| | - Qing-Biao Li
- College of Ocean Food and Biological Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Engineering, Xiamen 361021, China
- Research Center of Food Biotechnology of Xiamen City, Xiamen 361021, China
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15
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Seo K, Hagino K, Ichihashi N. Progresses in Cell-Free In Vitro Evolution. Adv Biochem Eng Biotechnol 2023; 186:121-140. [PMID: 37306699 DOI: 10.1007/10_2023_219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Biopolymers, such as proteins and RNA, are integral components of living organisms and have evolved through a process of repeated mutation and selection. The technique of "cell-free in vitro evolution" is a powerful experimental approach for developing biopolymers with desired functions and structural properties. Since Spiegelman's pioneering work over 50 years ago, biopolymers with a wide range of functions have been developed using in vitro evolution in cell-free systems. The use of cell-free systems offers several advantages, including the ability to synthesize a wider range of proteins without the limitations imposed by cytotoxicity, and the capacity for higher throughput and larger library sizes than cell-based evolutionary experiments. In this chapter, we provide a comprehensive overview of the progress made in the field of cell-free in vitro evolution by categorizing evolution into directed and undirected. The biopolymers produced by these methods are valuable assets in medicine and industry, and as a means of exploring the potential of biopolymers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaito Seo
- Department of Life Science, Graduate School of Arts and Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Katsumi Hagino
- Department of Life Science, Graduate School of Arts and Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Norikazu Ichihashi
- Department of Life Science, Graduate School of Arts and Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
- Komaba Institute for Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
- Universal Biology Institute, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
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16
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Su X, Yang J, Yuan H, Liu C, Tu R, Liu P, Wang Q, Zhu L. Directed Evolution of Laccase for Improved Thermal Stability Facilitated by Droplet-Based Microfluidic Screening System. J Agric Food Chem 2022; 70:13700-13708. [PMID: 36239441 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.2c05048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Laccases are attractive biocatalysts for industry due to their broad substrate spectrum, the use of oxygen as final electron acceptor, and water as the sole byproduct. Increasing efforts have been devoted to the engineering of laccases to improve their properties. The droplet-based microfluidic screening (DMFS) technology can accelerate the screening procedure and probe the large sequence space. In this study, a DMFS system including a heating step and picoinjection was used to sort large laccase libraries, yielding 12 variants with enhanced thermotolerance. All the obtained amino acid substitutions are distributed on the surface of the laccase. Interestingly, recombination of three identified substitutions of Asp to Asn on the surface resulted in the best variant M20, exhibiting 24.0-fold higher remaining activity at 58.8 °C and 1.9-3.4-fold higher remaining activity after incubation in organic solvents solution (20% (v/v) methanol and ethanol) and ionic liquid solution (20% (v/v) 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethyl sulfate) for 12 h. Furthermore, molecular dynamic simulations revealed that the recombination of the three beneficial substitutions, Asp98Asn, Asp474Asn, and Asp340Asn on the surface introduced more hydrogen bonds compared to the wild type, which made M20 more thermostable. This study highlighted the importance of the DMFS system for an efficient identification of beneficial long-distance amino acid substitutions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaolan Su
- University of Science and Technology of China, 96 JinZhai Road, Baohe District, Hefei 230026, Anhui, P. R. China
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 West Seventh Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
- National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology, 32 West Seventh Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
| | - Jianhua Yang
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 West Seventh Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
- National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology, 32 West Seventh Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
| | - Huiling Yuan
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 West Seventh Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
- National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology, 32 West Seventh Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
| | - Cui Liu
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 West Seventh Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
- National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology, 32 West Seventh Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
| | - Ran Tu
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 West Seventh Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
- National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology, 32 West Seventh Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
| | - Pi Liu
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 West Seventh Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
- National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology, 32 West Seventh Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
| | - Qinhong Wang
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 West Seventh Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
- National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology, 32 West Seventh Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
| | - Leilei Zhu
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 West Seventh Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
- National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology, 32 West Seventh Avenue, Tianjin Airport Economic Area, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
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17
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Xu Y, Liu XF, Chen XA, Li YQ. Directed Evolution of a Nonheme Diiron N-oxygenase AzoC for Improving Its Catalytic Efficiency toward Nitrogen Heterocycle Substrates. Molecules 2022; 27:molecules27030868. [PMID: 35164125 PMCID: PMC8840469 DOI: 10.3390/molecules27030868] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2021] [Revised: 01/19/2022] [Accepted: 01/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
The azoxy compounds with an intriguing chemical bond [-N=N+(-O−)-] are known to have broad applications in many industries. Our previous work revealed that a nonheme diiron N-oxygenase AzoC catalyzed the oxidization of amino-group to its nitroso analogue in the formation of azoxy bond in azoxymycins biosynthesis. However, except for the reported pyridine alkaloid azoxy compounds, most azoxy bonds of nitrogen heterocycles have not been biosynthesized so far, and the substrate scope of AzoC is limited to p-aminobenzene-type compounds. Therefore, it is very meaningful to use AzoC to realize the biosynthesis of azoxy nitrogen heterocycles compounds. In this work, we further studied the catalytic potential of AzoC toward nitrogen heterocycle substrates including 5-aminopyrimidine and 5-aminopyridine compounds to form new azoxy compounds through directed evolution. We constructed a double mutant L101I/Q104R via molecular engineering with improved catalytic efficiency toward 2-methoxypyrimidin-5-amine. These mutations also proved to be beneficial for N-oxygenation of methyl 5-aminopyrimidine-2-carboxylate. The structural analysis showed that relatively shorter distance between the substrate and the diiron center and amino acid residues of the active center may be responsible for the improvement of catalytic efficiency in L101I/Q104R. Our results provide a molecular basis for broadening the AzoC catalytic activity and its application in the biosynthesis of azoxy six-membered nitrogen catenation compounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ye Xu
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; (Y.X.); (X.-F.L.)
- Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Microbial Biochemistry and Metabolic Engineering, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Xiao-Fang Liu
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; (Y.X.); (X.-F.L.)
- Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Microbial Biochemistry and Metabolic Engineering, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Xin-Ai Chen
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; (Y.X.); (X.-F.L.)
- Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Microbial Biochemistry and Metabolic Engineering, Hangzhou 310058, China
- Correspondence: (X.-A.C.); (Y.-Q.L.); Tel.: +86-571-88208569 (X.-A.C.); +86-571-88206632 (Y.-Q.L.)
| | - Yong-Quan Li
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; (Y.X.); (X.-F.L.)
- Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Microbial Biochemistry and Metabolic Engineering, Hangzhou 310058, China
- Correspondence: (X.-A.C.); (Y.-Q.L.); Tel.: +86-571-88208569 (X.-A.C.); +86-571-88206632 (Y.-Q.L.)
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18
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Phillips MA, Arnold KR, Vue Z, Beasley HK, Garza-Lopez E, Marshall AG, Morton DJ, McReynolds MR, Barter TT, Hinton A. Combining Metabolomics and Experimental Evolution Reveals Key Mechanisms Underlying Longevity Differences in Laboratory Evolved Drosophila melanogaster Populations. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms23031067. [PMID: 35162994 PMCID: PMC8835531 DOI: 10.3390/ijms23031067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2021] [Revised: 01/07/2022] [Accepted: 01/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Experimental evolution with Drosophila melanogaster has been used extensively for decades to study aging and longevity. In recent years, the addition of DNA and RNA sequencing to this framework has allowed researchers to leverage the statistical power inherent to experimental evolution to study the genetic basis of longevity itself. Here, we incorporated metabolomic data into to this framework to generate even deeper insights into the physiological and genetic mechanisms underlying longevity differences in three groups of experimentally evolved D. melanogaster populations with different aging and longevity patterns. Our metabolomic analysis found that aging alters mitochondrial metabolism through increased consumption of NAD+ and increased usage of the TCA cycle. Combining our genomic and metabolomic data produced a list of biologically relevant candidate genes. Among these candidates, we found significant enrichment for genes and pathways associated with neurological development and function, and carbohydrate metabolism. While we do not explicitly find enrichment for aging canonical genes, neurological dysregulation and carbohydrate metabolism are both known to be associated with accelerated aging and reduced longevity. Taken together, our results provide plausible genetic mechanisms for what might be driving longevity differences in this experimental system. More broadly, our findings demonstrate the value of combining multiple types of omic data with experimental evolution when attempting to dissect mechanisms underlying complex and highly polygenic traits such as aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark A. Phillips
- Department of Integrative Biology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA;
| | - Kenneth R. Arnold
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA; (K.R.A.); (T.T.B.)
| | - Zer Vue
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37232, USA; (Z.V.); (H.K.B.); (A.G.M.)
| | - Heather K. Beasley
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37232, USA; (Z.V.); (H.K.B.); (A.G.M.)
- Department of Biochemistry, Cancer Biology, Neuroscience, and Pharmacology, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN 37208, USA
| | - Edgar Garza-Lopez
- Hinton and Garza-Lopez Family Consulting Company, Iowa City, IA 52246, USA;
| | - Andrea G. Marshall
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37232, USA; (Z.V.); (H.K.B.); (A.G.M.)
| | - Derrick J. Morton
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA;
| | - Melanie R. McReynolds
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Huck Institute of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA;
| | - Thomas T. Barter
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA; (K.R.A.); (T.T.B.)
| | - Antentor Hinton
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37232, USA; (Z.V.); (H.K.B.); (A.G.M.)
- Hinton and Garza-Lopez Family Consulting Company, Iowa City, IA 52246, USA;
- Correspondence:
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19
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Monza E, Gil V, Lucas MF. Computational Enzyme Design at Zymvol. Methods Mol Biol 2022; 2397:249-259. [PMID: 34813068 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1826-4_13] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Directed evolution is the most recognized methodology for enzyme engineering. The main drawback resides in its random nature and in the limited sequence exploration; both require screening of thousands (if not millions) of variants to achieve a target function. Computer-driven approaches can limit laboratorial screening to a few hundred candidates, enabling and accelerating the development of industrial enzymes. In this book chapter, the technology adopted at Zymvol is described. An overview of the current development and future directions in the company is also provided.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emanuele Monza
- Zymvol Biomodeling SL, Carrer Roc Boronat 117, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Victor Gil
- Zymvol Biomodeling SL, Carrer Roc Boronat 117, Barcelona, Spain
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20
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Abstract
The CompassR rule enables to identify the beneficial substitutions, which can be recombined in directed evolution with gradually improving the enzymatic properties. However, the question of how to efficiently explore the protein sequence space when ten or more beneficial substitutions are identified has not yet been addressed. Two recombination strategies 2GenReP and InSiReP employing CompassR are systematically investigated to minimize experimental efforts and maximize possible improvements. Here we describe the details of the 2GenReP and InSiReP procedure with an example of recombining 15 substitutions and discuss some important practical issues that should be considered for the application of 2GenReP and InSiReP, such as placing the substitutions into subsets. The core part of the protocol (Step1 to Step5) is transferable to other enzymes and any recombination of potential substitutions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haiyang Cui
- Institute of Biotechnology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Mehdi D Davari
- Institute of Biotechnology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
| | - Ulrich Schwaneberg
- Institute of Biotechnology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
- DWI Leibniz-Institute for Interactive Materials, Aachen, Germany.
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21
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Hitchcock A, Hunter CN, Sobotka R, Komenda J, Dann M, Leister D. Redesigning the photosynthetic light reactions to enhance photosynthesis - the PhotoRedesign consortium. Plant J 2022; 109:23-34. [PMID: 34709696 DOI: 10.1111/tpj.15552] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2021] [Revised: 10/12/2021] [Accepted: 10/21/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
In this Perspective article, we describe the visions of the PhotoRedesign consortium funded by the European Research Council of how to enhance photosynthesis. The light reactions of photosynthesis in individual phototrophic species use only a fraction of the solar spectrum, and high light intensities can impair and even damage the process. In consequence, expanding the solar spectrum and enhancing the overall energy capacity of the process, while developing resilience to stresses imposed by high light intensities, could have a strong positive impact on food and energy production. So far, the complexity of the photosynthetic machinery has largely prevented improvements by conventional approaches. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop concepts to redesign the light-harvesting and photochemical capacity of photosynthesis, as well as to establish new model systems and toolkits for the next generation of photosynthesis researchers. The overall objective of PhotoRedesign is to reconfigure the photosynthetic light reactions so they can harvest and safely convert energy from an expanded solar spectrum. To this end, a variety of synthetic biology approaches, including de novo design, will combine the attributes of photosystems from different photoautotrophic model organisms, namely the purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides, the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 and the plant Arabidopsis thaliana. In parallel, adaptive laboratory evolution will be applied to improve the capacity of reimagined organisms to cope with enhanced input of solar energy, particularly in high and fluctuating light.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Hitchcock
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK
| | - Christopher Neil Hunter
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK
| | - Roman Sobotka
- Laboratory of Photosynthesis, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Třeboň, 37901, Czech Republic
| | - Josef Komenda
- Laboratory of Photosynthesis, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Třeboň, 37901, Czech Republic
| | - Marcel Dann
- Plant Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Planegg-Martinsried, 82152, Germany
| | - Dario Leister
- Plant Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Planegg-Martinsried, 82152, Germany
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22
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Abstract
Evolution is essential to the generation of complexity and ultimately life. It relies on the propagation of the properties, traits, and characteristics that allow an organism to survive in a challenging environment. It is evolution that shaped our world over about four billion years by slow and iterative adaptation. While natural evolution based on selection is slow and gradual, directed evolution allows the fast and streamlined optimization of a phenotype under selective conditions. The potential of directed evolution for the discovery and optimization of enzymes is mostly limited by the throughput of the tools and methods available for screening. Over the past twenty years, versatile tools based on droplet microfluidics have been developed to address the need for higher throughput. In this Review, we provide a chronological overview of the intertwined development of microfluidics droplet-based compartmentalization methods and in vivo directed evolution of enzymes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ariane Stucki
- Department of Biosystems Science and EngineeringETH ZurichMattenstrasse 26CH-4058BaselSwitzerland
- National Competence Center in Research (NCCR)Molecular Systems EngineeringBaselSwitzerland
| | - Jaicy Vallapurackal
- Department of ChemistryUniversity of BaselMattenstrasse 24aCH-4058BaselSwitzerland
- National Competence Center in Research (NCCR)Molecular Systems EngineeringBaselSwitzerland
| | - Thomas R. Ward
- Department of ChemistryUniversity of BaselMattenstrasse 24aCH-4058BaselSwitzerland
- National Competence Center in Research (NCCR)Molecular Systems EngineeringBaselSwitzerland
| | - Petra S. Dittrich
- Department of Biosystems Science and EngineeringETH ZurichMattenstrasse 26CH-4058BaselSwitzerland
- National Competence Center in Research (NCCR)Molecular Systems EngineeringBaselSwitzerland
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23
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Kröß C, Engele P, Sprenger B, Fischer A, Lingg N, Baier M, Öhlknecht C, Lier B, Oostenbrink C, Cserjan-Puschmann M, Striedner G, Jungbauer A, Schneider R. PROFICS: A bacterial selection system for directed evolution of proteases. J Biol Chem 2021; 297:101095. [PMID: 34418435 PMCID: PMC8446807 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2021.101095] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2021] [Revised: 08/10/2021] [Accepted: 08/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Proteases serve as important tools in biotechnology and as valuable drugs or drug targets. Efficient protein engineering methods to study and modulate protease properties are thus of great interest for a plethora of applications. We established PROFICS (PRotease Optimization via Fusion-Inhibited Carbamoyltransferase-based Selection), a bacterial selection system, which enables the optimization of proteases for biotechnology, therapeutics or diagnosis in a simple overnight process. During the PROFICS process, proteases are selected for their ability to specifically cut a tag from a reporter enzyme and leave a native N-terminus. Precise and efficient cleavage after the recognition sequence reverses the phenotype of an Escherichia coli knockout strain deficient in an essential enzyme of pyrimidine synthesis. A toolbox was generated to select for proteases with different preferences for P1' residues (the residue immediately following the cleavage site). The functionality of PROFICS is demonstrated with viral proteases and human caspase-2. PROFICS improved caspase-2 activity up to 25-fold after only one round of mutation and selection. Additionally, we found a significantly improved tolerance for all P1' residues caused by a mutation in a substrate interaction site. We showed that this improved activity enables cells containing the new variant to outgrow cells containing all other mutants, facilitating its straightforward selection. Apart from optimizing enzymatic activity and P1' tolerance, PROFICS can be used to reprogram specificities, erase off-target activity, optimize expression via tags/codon usage, or even to screen for potential drug-resistance-conferring mutations in therapeutic targets such as viral proteases in an unbiased manner.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina Kröß
- acib GmbH, Graz, Austria; Institute of Biochemistry and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Petra Engele
- acib GmbH, Graz, Austria; Institute of Biochemistry and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Bernhard Sprenger
- acib GmbH, Graz, Austria; Institute of Biochemistry and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Andreas Fischer
- acib GmbH, Graz, Austria; Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Nico Lingg
- acib GmbH, Graz, Austria; Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Magdalena Baier
- Institute of Biochemistry and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Christoph Öhlknecht
- acib GmbH, Graz, Austria; Institute of Molecular Modeling and Simulation, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Bettina Lier
- acib GmbH, Graz, Austria; Institute of Molecular Modeling and Simulation, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Chris Oostenbrink
- acib GmbH, Graz, Austria; Institute of Molecular Modeling and Simulation, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Monika Cserjan-Puschmann
- acib GmbH, Graz, Austria; Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Gerald Striedner
- acib GmbH, Graz, Austria; Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Alois Jungbauer
- acib GmbH, Graz, Austria; Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Rainer Schneider
- acib GmbH, Graz, Austria; Institute of Biochemistry and Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
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24
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Tabebordbar M, Lagerborg KA, Stanton A, King EM, Ye S, Tellez L, Krunnfusz A, Tavakoli S, Widrick JJ, Messemer KA, Troiano EC, Moghadaszadeh B, Peacker BL, Leacock KA, Horwitz N, Beggs AH, Wagers AJ, Sabeti PC. Directed evolution of a family of AAV capsid variants enabling potent muscle-directed gene delivery across species. Cell 2021; 184:4919-4938.e22. [PMID: 34506722 PMCID: PMC9344975 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 153] [Impact Index Per Article: 51.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2020] [Revised: 05/21/2021] [Accepted: 08/20/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Replacing or editing disease-causing mutations holds great promise for treating many human diseases. Yet, delivering therapeutic genetic modifiers to specific cells in vivo has been challenging, particularly in large, anatomically distributed tissues such as skeletal muscle. Here, we establish an in vivo strategy to evolve and stringently select capsid variants of adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) that enable potent delivery to desired tissues. Using this method, we identify a class of RGD motif-containing capsids that transduces muscle with superior efficiency and selectivity after intravenous injection in mice and non-human primates. We demonstrate substantially enhanced potency and therapeutic efficacy of these engineered vectors compared to naturally occurring AAV capsids in two mouse models of genetic muscle disease. The top capsid variants from our selection approach show conserved potency for delivery across a variety of inbred mouse strains, and in cynomolgus macaques and human primary myotubes, with transduction dependent on target cell expressed integrin heterodimers.
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MESH Headings
- Amino Acid Sequence
- Animals
- Capsid/chemistry
- Capsid/metabolism
- Cells, Cultured
- Dependovirus/metabolism
- Directed Molecular Evolution
- Disease Models, Animal
- Gene Transfer Techniques
- HEK293 Cells
- Humans
- Integrins/metabolism
- Macaca fascicularis
- Mice, Inbred BALB C
- Mice, Inbred C57BL
- Muscle Fibers, Skeletal/metabolism
- Muscle, Skeletal/metabolism
- Muscular Dystrophy, Duchenne/pathology
- Muscular Dystrophy, Duchenne/therapy
- Myopathies, Structural, Congenital/pathology
- Myopathies, Structural, Congenital/therapy
- Protein Multimerization
- Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases, Non-Receptor/genetics
- Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases, Non-Receptor/metabolism
- Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases, Non-Receptor/therapeutic use
- Recombination, Genetic/genetics
- Species Specificity
- Transgenes
- Mice
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kim A Lagerborg
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Harvard Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Alexandra Stanton
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Harvard Program in Virology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Emily M King
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | - Simon Ye
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Liana Tellez
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | | | - Sahar Tavakoli
- Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Stem Cell Program and Division of Hematology/Oncology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Jeffrey J Widrick
- Division of Genetics and Genomics, The Manton Center for Orphan Disease Research, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Kathleen A Messemer
- Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Emily C Troiano
- Division of Genetics and Genomics, The Manton Center for Orphan Disease Research, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Behzad Moghadaszadeh
- Division of Genetics and Genomics, The Manton Center for Orphan Disease Research, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Bryan L Peacker
- Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Krystynne A Leacock
- Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Naftali Horwitz
- Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Section on Islet Cell and Regenerative Biology, Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Alan H Beggs
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Division of Genetics and Genomics, The Manton Center for Orphan Disease Research, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Amy J Wagers
- Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Section on Islet Cell and Regenerative Biology, Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
| | - Pardis C Sabeti
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA.
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25
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Udenze D, Trus I, Munyanduki H, Berube N, Karniychuk U. The Isolated in Utero Environment Is Conducive to the Emergence of RNA and DNA Virus Variants. Viruses 2021; 13:v13091827. [PMID: 34578408 PMCID: PMC8473323 DOI: 10.3390/v13091827] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2021] [Revised: 09/06/2021] [Accepted: 09/11/2021] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
The host’s immune status may affect virus evolution. Little is known about how developing fetal and placental immune milieus affect virus heterogeneity. This knowledge will help us better understand intra-host virus evolution and how new virus variants emerge. The goal of our study was to find out whether the isolated in utero environment—an environment with specialized placental immunity and developing fetal immunity—supports the emergence of RNA and DNA virus variants. We used well-established porcine models for isolated Zika virus (RNA virus) and porcine circovirus 2 (DNA virus) fetal infections. We found that the isolated in utero environment was conducive to the emergence of RNA and DNA virus variants. Next-generation sequencing of nearly whole virus genomes and validated bioinformatics pipelines identified both unique and convergent single nucleotide variations in virus genomes isolated from different fetuses. Zika virus and PCV2 in utero evolution also resulted in single nucleotide variations previously reported in the human and porcine field samples. These findings should encourage further studies on virus evolution in placenta and fetuses, to better understand how virus variants emerge and how in utero viral evolution affects congenital virus transmission and pathogenicity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Udenze
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E3, Canada; (D.U.); (I.T.); (H.M.); (N.B.)
- School of Public Health, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 2Z4, Canada
| | - Ivan Trus
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E3, Canada; (D.U.); (I.T.); (H.M.); (N.B.)
| | - Henry Munyanduki
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E3, Canada; (D.U.); (I.T.); (H.M.); (N.B.)
| | - Nathalie Berube
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E3, Canada; (D.U.); (I.T.); (H.M.); (N.B.)
| | - Uladzimir Karniychuk
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E3, Canada; (D.U.); (I.T.); (H.M.); (N.B.)
- School of Public Health, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 2Z4, Canada
- Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B4, Canada
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +1-306-966-5510
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26
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Liu CC. Sense and Sense Ability in a Synthetic Genetic Code. N Engl J Med 2021; 385:1045-1048. [PMID: 34496180 DOI: 10.1056/nejmcibr2109352] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Chang C Liu
- From the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Center for Synthetic Biology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine
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27
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Jensen ED, Laloux M, Lehka BJ, Pedersen LE, Jakočiūnas T, Jensen M, Keasling J. A synthetic RNA-mediated evolution system in yeast. Nucleic Acids Res 2021; 49:e88. [PMID: 34107026 PMCID: PMC8421215 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkab472] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2021] [Revised: 04/13/2021] [Accepted: 05/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Laboratory evolution is a powerful approach to search for genetic adaptations to new or improved phenotypes, yet either relies on labour-intensive human-guided iterative rounds of mutagenesis and selection, or prolonged adaptation regimes based on naturally evolving cell populations. Here we present CRISPR- and RNA-assisted in vivo directed evolution (CRAIDE) of genomic loci using evolving chimeric donor gRNAs continuously delivered from an error-prone T7 RNA polymerase, and directly introduced as RNA repair donors into genomic targets under either Cas9 or dCas9 guidance. We validate CRAIDE by evolving novel functional variants of an auxotrophic marker gene, and by conferring resistance to a toxic amino acid analogue in baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae with a mutation rate >3,000-fold higher compared to spontaneous native rate, thus enabling the first demonstrations of in vivo delivery and information transfer from long evolving RNA donor templates into genomic context without the use of in vitro supplied and pre-programmed repair donors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emil D Jensen
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Marcos Laloux
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Beata J Lehka
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Lasse E Pedersen
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Tadas Jakočiūnas
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Michael K Jensen
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Jay D Keasling
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
- Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, CA, USA
- Biological Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering & Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Center for Synthetic Biochemistry, Institute for Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technologies, Shenzhen, China
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28
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Currin A, Parker S, Robinson CJ, Takano E, Scrutton NS, Breitling R. The evolving art of creating genetic diversity: From directed evolution to synthetic biology. Biotechnol Adv 2021; 50:107762. [PMID: 34000294 PMCID: PMC8299547 DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2021.107762] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2020] [Revised: 04/21/2021] [Accepted: 04/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
The ability to engineer biological systems, whether to introduce novel functionality or improved performance, is a cornerstone of biotechnology and synthetic biology. Typically, this requires the generation of genetic diversity to explore variations in phenotype, a process that can be performed at many levels, from single molecule targets (i.e., in directed evolution of enzymes) to whole organisms (e.g., in chassis engineering). Recent advances in DNA synthesis technology and automation have enhanced our ability to create variant libraries with greater control and throughput. This review highlights the latest developments in approaches to create such a hierarchy of diversity from the enzyme level to entire pathways in vitro, with a focus on the creation of combinatorial libraries that are required to navigate a target's vast design space successfully to uncover significant improvements in function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Currin
- Manchester Centre for Synthetic Biology of Fine and Speciality Chemicals (SYNBIOCHEM), Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, The University of Manchester, Manchester M1 7DN, United Kingdom.
| | - Steven Parker
- Manchester Centre for Synthetic Biology of Fine and Speciality Chemicals (SYNBIOCHEM), Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, The University of Manchester, Manchester M1 7DN, United Kingdom
| | - Christopher J Robinson
- Manchester Centre for Synthetic Biology of Fine and Speciality Chemicals (SYNBIOCHEM), Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, The University of Manchester, Manchester M1 7DN, United Kingdom
| | - Eriko Takano
- Manchester Centre for Synthetic Biology of Fine and Speciality Chemicals (SYNBIOCHEM), Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, The University of Manchester, Manchester M1 7DN, United Kingdom
| | - Nigel S Scrutton
- Manchester Centre for Synthetic Biology of Fine and Speciality Chemicals (SYNBIOCHEM), Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, The University of Manchester, Manchester M1 7DN, United Kingdom
| | - Rainer Breitling
- Manchester Centre for Synthetic Biology of Fine and Speciality Chemicals (SYNBIOCHEM), Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, The University of Manchester, Manchester M1 7DN, United Kingdom.
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29
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Abstract
mRNA display is a powerful biological display platform for the directed evolution of proteins and peptides. mRNA display libraries covalently link the displayed peptide or protein (phenotype) with the encoding genetic information (genotype) through the biochemical activity of the small molecule puromycin. Selection for peptide/protein function is followed by amplification of the linked genetic material and generation of a library enriched in functional sequences. Iterative selection cycles are then performed until the desired level of function is achieved, at which time the identity of candidate peptides can be obtained by sequencing the genetic material. The purpose of this review is to discuss the development of mRNA display technology since its inception in 1997 and to comprehensively review its use in the selection of novel peptides and proteins. We begin with an overview of the biochemical mechanism of mRNA display and its variants with a particular focus on its advantages and disadvantages relative to other biological display technologies. We then discuss the importance of scaffold choice in mRNA display selections and review the results of selection experiments with biological (e.g., fibronectin) and linear peptide library architectures. We then explore recent progress in the development of "drug-like" peptides by mRNA display through the post-translational covalent macrocyclization and incorporation of non-proteogenic functionalities. We conclude with an examination of enabling technologies that increase the speed of selection experiments, enhance the information obtained in post-selection sequence analysis, and facilitate high-throughput characterization of lead compounds. We hope to provide the reader with a comprehensive view of current state and future trajectory of mRNA display and its broad utility as a peptide and protein design tool.
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Affiliation(s)
- Golnaz Kamalinia
- Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
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30
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Tohar R, Ansbacher T, Sher I, Afriat-Jurnou L, Weinberg E, Gal M. Screening Collagenase Activity in Bacterial Lysate for Directed Enzyme Applications. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:ijms22168552. [PMID: 34445258 PMCID: PMC8395246 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22168552] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2021] [Revised: 08/04/2021] [Accepted: 08/04/2021] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Collagenases are essential enzymes capable of digesting triple-helical collagen under physiological conditions. These enzymes play a key role in diverse physiological and pathophysiological processes. Collagenases are used for diverse biotechnological applications, and it is thus of major interest to identify new enzyme variants with improved characteristics such as expression yield, stability, or activity. The engineering of new enzyme variants often relies on either rational protein design or directed enzyme evolution. The latter includes screening of a large randomized or semirational genetic library, both of which require an assay that enables the identification of improved variants. Moreover, the assay should be tailored for microplates to allow the screening of hundreds or thousands of clones. Herein, we repurposed the previously reported fluorogenic assay using 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid for the quantitation of collagen, and applied it in the detection of bacterial collagenase activity in bacterial lysates. This enabled the screening of hundreds of E. coli colonies expressing an error-prone library of collagenase G from C. histolyticum, in 96-well deep-well plates, by measuring activity directly in lysates with collagen. As a proof-of-concept, a single variant exhibiting higher activity than the starting-point enzyme was expressed, purified, and characterized biochemically and computationally. This showed the feasibility of this method to support medium-high throughput screening based on direct evaluation of collagenase activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ran Tohar
- Department of Oral Biology, The Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel; (R.T.); (T.A.); (I.S.); (E.W.)
| | - Tamar Ansbacher
- Department of Oral Biology, The Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel; (R.T.); (T.A.); (I.S.); (E.W.)
- Hadassah Academic College, 7 Hanevi’im Street, Jerusalem 9101001, Israel
| | - Inbal Sher
- Department of Oral Biology, The Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel; (R.T.); (T.A.); (I.S.); (E.W.)
| | - Livnat Afriat-Jurnou
- Migal-Galilee Research Institute, Kiryat Shmona 11016, Israel;
- Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Tel-Hai Academic College, Upper Galilee 1220800, Israel
| | - Evgeny Weinberg
- Department of Oral Biology, The Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel; (R.T.); (T.A.); (I.S.); (E.W.)
| | - Maayan Gal
- Department of Oral Biology, The Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel; (R.T.); (T.A.); (I.S.); (E.W.)
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +972-50-7987058
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31
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Dimitriu T, Matthews AC, Buckling A. Increased copy number couples the evolution of plasmid horizontal transmission and plasmid-encoded antibiotic resistance. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:e2107818118. [PMID: 34326267 PMCID: PMC8346908 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2107818118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Conjugative plasmids are mobile elements that spread horizontally between bacterial hosts and often confer adaptive phenotypes, including antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Theory suggests that opportunities for horizontal transmission favor plasmids with higher transfer rates, whereas selection for plasmid carriage favors less-mobile plasmids. However, little is known about the mechanisms leading to variation in transmission rates in natural plasmids or the resultant effects on their bacterial host. We investigated the evolution of AMR plasmids confronted with different immigration rates of susceptible hosts. Plasmid RP4 did not evolve in response to the manipulations, but plasmid R1 rapidly evolved up to 1,000-fold increased transfer rates in the presence of susceptible hosts. Most evolved plasmids also conferred on their hosts the ability to grow at high concentrations of antibiotics. This was because plasmids evolved greater copy numbers as a function of mutations in the copA gene controlling plasmid replication, causing both higher transfer rates and AMR. Reciprocally, plasmids with increased conjugation rates also evolved when selecting for high levels of AMR, despite the absence of susceptible hosts. Such correlated selection between plasmid transfer and AMR could increase the spread of AMR within populations and communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tatiana Dimitriu
- Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Cornwall TR10 9FE, United Kingdom
| | - Andrew C Matthews
- Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Cornwall TR10 9FE, United Kingdom
| | - Angus Buckling
- Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Cornwall TR10 9FE, United Kingdom
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32
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Martin-Diaz J, Molina-Espeja P, Hofrichter M, Hollmann F, Alcalde M. Directed evolution of unspecific peroxygenase in organic solvents. Biotechnol Bioeng 2021; 118:3002-3014. [PMID: 33964174 DOI: 10.1002/bit.27810] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2021] [Revised: 04/16/2021] [Accepted: 04/30/2021] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
Fungal unspecific peroxygenases (UPOs) are efficient biocatalysts that insert oxygen atoms into nonactivated C-H bonds with high selectivity. Many oxyfunctionalization reactions catalyzed by UPOs are favored in organic solvents, a milieu in which their enzymatic activity is drastically reduced. Using as departure point the UPO secretion mutant from Agrocybe aegerita (PaDa-I variant), in the current study we have improved its activity in organic solvents by directed evolution. Mutant libraries constructed by random mutagenesis and in vivo DNA shuffling were screened in the presence of increasing concentrations of organic solvents that differed both in regard to their chemical nature and polarity. In addition, a palette of neutral mutations generated by genetic drift that improved activity in organic solvents was evaluated by site directed recombination in vivo. The final UPO variant of this evolutionary campaign carried nine mutations that enhanced its activity in the presence of 30% acetonitrile (vol/vol) up to 23-fold over PaDa-I parental type, and it was also active and stable in aqueous acetone, methanol and dimethyl sulfoxide mixtures. These mutations, which are located at the surface of the protein and in the heme channel, seemingly helped to protect UPO from harmful effects of cosolvents by modifying interactions with surrounding residues and influencing critical loops.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Martin Hofrichter
- Department of Bio- and Environmental Sciences, TU Dresden, International Institute Zittau, Zittau, Germany
| | - Frank Hollmann
- Department of Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
| | - Miguel Alcalde
- Department of Biocatalysis, Institute of Catalysis, CSIC, Madrid, Spain
- EvoEnzyme S.L., Parque Científico de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
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33
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Abstract
Data from a long time evolution experiment with Escherichia Coli and from a large study on copy number variations in subjects with European ancestry are analyzed in order to argue that mutations can be described as Levy flights in the mutation space. These Levy flights have at least two components: random single-base substitutions and large DNA rearrangements. From the data, we get estimations for the time rates of both events and the size distribution function of large rearrangements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dario A Leon
- University of Modena & Reggio Emilia, 41125, Modena, Italy.
- Institute of Cybernetics, Mathematics and Physics, 10400, Havana, Cuba.
| | - Augusto Gonzalez
- Institute of Cybernetics, Mathematics and Physics, 10400, Havana, Cuba
- University of Electronic Science and Technology, Chengdu, 610051, People's Republic of China
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34
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Prell C, Busche T, Rückert C, Nolte L, Brandenbusch C, Wendisch VF. Adaptive laboratory evolution accelerated glutarate production by Corynebacterium glutamicum. Microb Cell Fact 2021; 20:97. [PMID: 33971881 PMCID: PMC8112011 DOI: 10.1186/s12934-021-01586-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2021] [Accepted: 04/26/2021] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The demand for biobased polymers is increasing steadily worldwide. Microbial hosts for production of their monomeric precursors such as glutarate are developed. To meet the market demand, production hosts have to be improved constantly with respect to product titers and yields, but also shortening bioprocess duration is important. RESULTS In this study, adaptive laboratory evolution was used to improve a C. glutamicum strain engineered for production of the C5-dicarboxylic acid glutarate by flux enforcement. Deletion of the L-glutamic acid dehydrogenase gene gdh coupled growth to glutarate production since two transaminases in the glutarate pathway are crucial for nitrogen assimilation. The hypothesis that strains selected for faster glutarate-coupled growth by adaptive laboratory evolution show improved glutarate production was tested. A serial dilution growth experiment allowed isolating faster growing mutants with growth rates increasing from 0.10 h-1 by the parental strain to 0.17 h-1 by the fastest mutant. Indeed, the fastest growing mutant produced glutarate with a twofold higher volumetric productivity of 0.18 g L-1 h-1 than the parental strain. Genome sequencing of the evolved strain revealed candidate mutations for improved production. Reverse genetic engineering revealed that an amino acid exchange in the large subunit of L-glutamic acid-2-oxoglutarate aminotransferase was causal for accelerated glutarate production and its beneficial effect was dependent on flux enforcement due to deletion of gdh. Performance of the evolved mutant was stable at the 2 L bioreactor-scale operated in batch and fed-batch mode in a mineral salts medium and reached a titer of 22.7 g L-1, a yield of 0.23 g g-1 and a volumetric productivity of 0.35 g L-1 h-1. Reactive extraction of glutarate directly from the fermentation broth was optimized leading to yields of 58% and 99% in the reactive extraction and reactive re-extraction step, respectively. The fermentation medium was adapted according to the downstream processing results. CONCLUSION Flux enforcement to couple growth to operation of a product biosynthesis pathway provides a basis to select strains growing and producing faster by adaptive laboratory evolution. After identifying candidate mutations by genome sequencing causal mutations can be identified by reverse genetics. As exemplified here for glutarate production by C. glutamicum, this approach allowed deducing rational metabolic engineering strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carina Prell
- Genetics of Prokaryotes, Faculty of Biology & CeBiTec, Bielefeld University, Universitätsstr. 25, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Tobias Busche
- Technology Platform Genomics, Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec), Bielefeld University, Sequenz 1, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Christian Rückert
- Technology Platform Genomics, Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec), Bielefeld University, Sequenz 1, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Lea Nolte
- Laboratory of Thermodynamics, Department of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering, TU Dortmund University, Emil-Figge-Str. 70, 44227 Dortmund, Germany
| | - Christoph Brandenbusch
- Laboratory of Thermodynamics, Department of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering, TU Dortmund University, Emil-Figge-Str. 70, 44227 Dortmund, Germany
| | - Volker F. Wendisch
- Genetics of Prokaryotes, Faculty of Biology & CeBiTec, Bielefeld University, Universitätsstr. 25, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany
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Madhavan A, Arun KB, Binod P, Sirohi R, Tarafdar A, Reshmy R, Kumar Awasthi M, Sindhu R. Design of novel enzyme biocatalysts for industrial bioprocess: Harnessing the power of protein engineering, high throughput screening and synthetic biology. Bioresour Technol 2021; 325:124617. [PMID: 33450638 DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124617] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2020] [Revised: 12/19/2020] [Accepted: 12/22/2020] [Indexed: 05/13/2023]
Abstract
Biocatalysts have wider applications in various industries. Biocatalysts are generating bigger attention among researchers due to their unique catalytic properties like activity, specificity and stability. However the industrial use of many enzymes is hindered by low catalytic efficiency and stability during industrial processes. Properties of enzymes can be altered by protein engineering. Protein engineers are increasingly study the structure-function characteristics, engineering attributes, design of computational tools for enzyme engineering, and functional screening processes to improve the design and applications of enzymes. The potent and innovative techniques of enzyme engineering deliver outstanding opportunities for tailoring industrially important enzymes for the versatile production of biochemicals. An overview of the current trends in enzyme engineering is explored with important representative examples.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aravind Madhavan
- Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Trivandrum 695 014, India
| | - K B Arun
- Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Trivandrum 695 014, India
| | - Parameswaran Binod
- Microbial Processes and Technology Division, CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (CSIR-NIIST), Trivandrum 695 019, India
| | - Ranjna Sirohi
- The Center for Energy and Environmental Sustainability, Lucknow 226 010, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Ayon Tarafdar
- Division of Livestock Production and Management, ICAR - Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly 243 122, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - R Reshmy
- Post Graduate and Research Department of Chemistry, Bishop Moore College, Mavelikara 690 110, Kerala, India
| | - Mukesh Kumar Awasthi
- College of Natural Resources and Environment, North West A & F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712 100, China
| | - Raveendran Sindhu
- Microbial Processes and Technology Division, CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (CSIR-NIIST), Trivandrum 695 019, India.
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Menghiu G, Ostafe V, Prodanović R, Fischer R, Ostafe R. A High-Throughput Screening System Based on Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting for the Directed Evolution of Chitinase A. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:ijms22063041. [PMID: 33809788 PMCID: PMC8002391 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22063041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2021] [Revised: 03/10/2021] [Accepted: 03/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Chitinases catalyze the degradation of chitin, a polymer of N-acetylglucosamine found in crustacean shells, insect cuticles, and fungal cell walls. There is great interest in the development of improved chitinases to address the environmental burden of chitin waste from the food processing industry as well as the potential medical, agricultural, and industrial uses of partially deacetylated chitin (chitosan) and its products (chito-oligosaccharides). The depolymerization of chitin can be achieved using chemical and physical treatments, but an enzymatic process would be more environmentally friendly and more sustainable. However, chitinases are slow-acting enzymes, limiting their biotechnological exploitation, although this can be overcome by molecular evolution approaches to enhance the features required for specific applications. The two main goals of this study were the development of a high-throughput screening system for chitinase activity (which could be extrapolated to other hydrolytic enzymes), and the deployment of this new method to select improved chitinase variants. We therefore cloned and expressed the Bacillus licheniformis DSM8785 chitinase A (chiA) gene in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) cells and generated a mutant library by error-prone PCR. We then developed a screening method based on fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) using the model substrate 4-methylumbelliferyl β-d-N,N′,N″-triacetyl chitotrioside to identify improved enzymes. We prevented cross-talk between emulsion compartments caused by the hydrophobicity of 4-methylumbelliferone, the fluorescent product of the enzymatic reaction, by incorporating cyclodextrins into the aqueous phases. We also addressed the toxicity of long-term chiA expression in E. coli by limiting the reaction time. We identified 12 mutants containing 2–8 mutations per gene resulting in up to twofold higher activity than wild-type ChiA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gheorghita Menghiu
- Institute for Biology VII, Molecular Biotechnology, RWTH Aachen University, Worringerweg 1, 52074 Aachen, Germany; (G.M.); (R.F.)
- Advanced Environmental Research Laboratories, Department of Biology–Chemistry, West University of Timisoara, Oituz 4, 300086 Timisoara, Romania;
| | - Vasile Ostafe
- Advanced Environmental Research Laboratories, Department of Biology–Chemistry, West University of Timisoara, Oituz 4, 300086 Timisoara, Romania;
| | - Radivoje Prodanović
- Faculty of Chemistry, University of Belgrade, Studentski trg 12-16, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia;
| | - Rainer Fischer
- Institute for Biology VII, Molecular Biotechnology, RWTH Aachen University, Worringerweg 1, 52074 Aachen, Germany; (G.M.); (R.F.)
- Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, Purdue University, 207 S. Martin Jischke Dr., West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| | - Raluca Ostafe
- Institute for Biology VII, Molecular Biotechnology, RWTH Aachen University, Worringerweg 1, 52074 Aachen, Germany; (G.M.); (R.F.)
- Purdue Institute of Inflammation, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Molecular Evolution, Protein Engineering and Production, Purdue University, 207 S. Martin Jischke Dr., West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +1-317-765-496-4012
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Kant Bhatia S, Vivek N, Kumar V, Chandel N, Thakur M, Kumar D, Yang YH, Pugazendhi A, Kumar G. Molecular biology interventions for activity improvement and production of industrial enzymes. Bioresour Technol 2021; 324:124596. [PMID: 33440311 DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124596] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2020] [Revised: 12/16/2020] [Accepted: 12/18/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Metagenomics and directed evolution technology have brought a revolution in search of novel enzymes from extreme environment and improvement of existing enzymes and tuning them towards certain desired properties. Using advanced tools of molecular biology i.e. next generation sequencing, site directed mutagenesis, fusion protein, surface display, etc. now researchers can engineer enzymes for improved activity, stability, and substrate specificity to meet the industrial demand. Although many enzymatic processes have been developed up to industrial scale, still there is a need to overcome limitations of maintaining activity during the catalytic process. In this article recent developments in enzymes industrial applications and advancements in metabolic engineering approaches to improve enzymes efficacy and production are reviewed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shashi Kant Bhatia
- Department of Biological Engineering, College of Engineering, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea; Institute for Ubiquitous Information Technology and Application, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea
| | - Narisetty Vivek
- Centre for Climate and Environmental Protection, School of Water, Energy and Environment, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK
| | - Vinod Kumar
- Centre for Climate and Environmental Protection, School of Water, Energy and Environment, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK
| | - Neha Chandel
- School of Medical and Allied Sciences, GD Goenka University, Gurugram 122103, Haryana, India
| | - Meenu Thakur
- Department of Biotechnology, Shoolini Institute of Life Sciences and Business Management, Solan 173212, Himachal Pradesh, India
| | - Dinesh Kumar
- School of Bioengineering & Food Technology, Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences, Solan 173229, Himachal Pradesh, India
| | - Yung-Hun Yang
- Department of Biological Engineering, College of Engineering, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea; Institute for Ubiquitous Information Technology and Application, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea
| | - Arivalagan Pugazendhi
- Innovative Green Product Synthesis and Renewable Environment Development Research Group, Faculty of Environment and Labour Safety, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho ChiMinh City, Viet Nam
| | - Gopalakrishnan Kumar
- Institute of Chemistry, Bioscience and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Stavanger, Box 8600 Forus, 4036 Stavanger, Norway; School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea.
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Rappazzo CG, Tse LV, Kaku CI, Wrapp D, Sakharkar M, Huang D, Deveau LM, Yockachonis TJ, Herbert AS, Battles MB, O'Brien CM, Brown ME, Geoghegan JC, Belk J, Peng L, Yang L, Hou Y, Scobey TD, Burton DR, Nemazee D, Dye JM, Voss JE, Gunn BM, McLellan JS, Baric RS, Gralinski LE, Walker LM. Broad and potent activity against SARS-like viruses by an engineered human monoclonal antibody. Science 2021; 371:823-829. [PMID: 33495307 PMCID: PMC7963221 DOI: 10.1126/science.abf4830] [Citation(s) in RCA: 220] [Impact Index Per Article: 73.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2020] [Accepted: 01/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
The recurrent zoonotic spillover of coronaviruses (CoVs) into the human population underscores the need for broadly active countermeasures. We employed a directed evolution approach to engineer three severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies for enhanced neutralization breadth and potency. One of the affinity-matured variants, ADG-2, displays strong binding activity to a large panel of sarbecovirus receptor binding domains and neutralizes representative epidemic sarbecoviruses with high potency. Structural and biochemical studies demonstrate that ADG-2 employs a distinct angle of approach to recognize a highly conserved epitope that overlaps the receptor binding site. In immunocompetent mouse models of SARS and COVID-19, prophylactic administration of ADG-2 provided complete protection against respiratory burden, viral replication in the lungs, and lung pathology. Altogether, ADG-2 represents a promising broad-spectrum therapeutic candidate against clade 1 sarbecoviruses.
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MESH Headings
- Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2/metabolism
- Animals
- Antibodies, Monoclonal/genetics
- Antibodies, Monoclonal/immunology
- Antibodies, Monoclonal/metabolism
- Antibodies, Viral/genetics
- Antibodies, Viral/immunology
- Antibodies, Viral/metabolism
- Antibody Affinity
- Betacoronavirus/immunology
- Binding Sites
- Binding Sites, Antibody
- Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies/genetics
- Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies/immunology
- Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies/metabolism
- COVID-19/prevention & control
- COVID-19/therapy
- Cell Surface Display Techniques
- Directed Molecular Evolution
- Epitopes/immunology
- Humans
- Immunization, Passive
- Immunoglobulin Fc Fragments/immunology
- Mice, Inbred BALB C
- Protein Domains
- Protein Engineering
- Receptors, Coronavirus/metabolism
- Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus/immunology
- SARS-CoV-2/immunology
- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome/immunology
- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome/prevention & control
- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome/therapy
- Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus/immunology
- Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus/metabolism
- COVID-19 Serotherapy
- Mice
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Longping V Tse
- Department of Epidemiology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | | | - Daniel Wrapp
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
| | | | - Deli Huang
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | | | - Thomas J Yockachonis
- Paul G. Allen School of Global Animal Health, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA
| | - Andrew S Herbert
- U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Frederick, MD 21702, USA
- The Geneva Foundation, Tacoma, WA 98402, USA
| | | | - Cecilia M O'Brien
- U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Frederick, MD 21702, USA
- The Geneva Foundation, Tacoma, WA 98402, USA
| | | | | | | | - Linghang Peng
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Linlin Yang
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Yixuan Hou
- Department of Epidemiology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Trevor D Scobey
- Department of Epidemiology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Dennis R Burton
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
- IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
- Consortium for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development (CHAVD), The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
- Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - David Nemazee
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - John M Dye
- U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Frederick, MD 21702, USA
| | - James E Voss
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Bronwyn M Gunn
- Paul G. Allen School of Global Animal Health, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA
| | - Jason S McLellan
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
| | - Ralph S Baric
- Department of Epidemiology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
- Departments of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Lisa E Gralinski
- Department of Epidemiology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
| | - Laura M Walker
- Adimab, LLC, Lebanon, NH 03766, USA.
- Adagio Therapeutics, Inc., Waltham, MA 02451, USA
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Ruelens P, de Visser JAGM. Clonal Interference and Mutation Bias in Small Bacterial Populations in Droplets. Genes (Basel) 2021; 12:223. [PMID: 33557200 PMCID: PMC7913962 DOI: 10.3390/genes12020223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2020] [Revised: 01/26/2021] [Accepted: 01/28/2021] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Experimental evolution studies have provided key insights into the fundamental mechanisms of evolution. One striking observation is that parallel and convergent evolution during laboratory evolution can be surprisingly common. However, these experiments are typically performed with well-mixed cultures and large effective population sizes, while pathogenic microbes typically experience strong bottlenecks during infection or drug treatment. Yet, our knowledge about adaptation in very small populations, where selection strength and mutation supplies are limited, is scant. In this study, wild-type and mutator strains of the bacterium Escherichia coli were evolved for about 100 generations towards increased resistance to the β-lactam antibiotic cefotaxime in millifluidic droplets of 0.5 µL and effective population size of approximately 27,000 cells. The small effective population size limited the adaptive potential of wild-type populations, where adaptation was limited to inactivating mutations, which caused the increased production of outer-membrane vesicles, leading to modest fitness increases. In contrast, mutator clones with an average of ~30-fold higher mutation rate adapted much faster by acquiring both inactivating mutations of an outer-membrane porin and particularly inactivating and gain-of-function mutations, causing the upregulation or activation of a common efflux pump, respectively. Our results demonstrate how in very small populations, clonal interference and mutation bias together affect the choice of adaptive trajectories by mediating the balance between high-rate and large-benefit mutations.
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Kasimatis KR, Sánchez-Ramírez S, Stevenson ZC. Sexual Dimorphism through the Lens of Genome Manipulation, Forward Genetics, and Spatiotemporal Sequencing. Genome Biol Evol 2021; 13:evaa243. [PMID: 33587127 PMCID: PMC7883666 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evaa243] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/15/2020] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Sexual reproduction often leads to selection that favors the evolution of sex-limited traits or sex-specific variation for shared traits. These sexual dimorphisms manifest due to sex-specific genetic architectures and sex-biased gene expression across development, yet the molecular mechanisms underlying these patterns are largely unknown. The first step is to understand how sexual dimorphisms arise across the genotype-phenotype-fitness map. The emergence of "4D genome technologies" allows for efficient, high-throughput, and cost-effective manipulation and observations of this process. Studies of sexual dimorphism will benefit from combining these technological advances (e.g., precision genome editing, inducible transgenic systems, and single-cell RNA sequencing) with clever experiments inspired by classic designs (e.g., bulked segregant analysis, experimental evolution, and pedigree tracing). This perspective poses a synthetic view of how manipulative approaches coupled with cutting-edge observational methods and evolutionary theory are poised to uncover the molecular genetic basis of sexual dimorphism with unprecedented resolution. We outline hypothesis-driven experimental paradigms for identifying genetic mechanisms of sexual dimorphism among tissues, across development, and over evolutionary time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katja R Kasimatis
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Ontario, USA
| | | | - Zachary C Stevenson
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA
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Planas-Iglesias J, Marques SM, Pinto GP, Musil M, Stourac J, Damborsky J, Bednar D. Computational design of enzymes for biotechnological applications. Biotechnol Adv 2021; 47:107696. [PMID: 33513434 DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2021.107696] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2020] [Revised: 01/12/2021] [Accepted: 01/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Enzymes are the natural catalysts that execute biochemical reactions upholding life. Their natural effectiveness has been fine-tuned as a result of millions of years of natural evolution. Such catalytic effectiveness has prompted the use of biocatalysts from multiple sources on different applications, including the industrial production of goods (food and beverages, detergents, textile, and pharmaceutics), environmental protection, and biomedical applications. Natural enzymes often need to be improved by protein engineering to optimize their function in non-native environments. Recent technological advances have greatly facilitated this process by providing the experimental approaches of directed evolution or by enabling computer-assisted applications. Directed evolution mimics the natural selection process in a highly accelerated fashion at the expense of arduous laboratory work and economic resources. Theoretical methods provide predictions and represent an attractive complement to such experiments by waiving their inherent costs. Computational techniques can be used to engineer enzymatic reactivity, substrate specificity and ligand binding, access pathways and ligand transport, and global properties like protein stability, solubility, and flexibility. Theoretical approaches can also identify hotspots on the protein sequence for mutagenesis and predict suitable alternatives for selected positions with expected outcomes. This review covers the latest advances in computational methods for enzyme engineering and presents many successful case studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joan Planas-Iglesias
- Loschmidt Laboratories, Department of Experimental Biology and RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5/A13, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic; International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital Brno, Pekarska 53, 656 91 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Sérgio M Marques
- Loschmidt Laboratories, Department of Experimental Biology and RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5/A13, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic; International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital Brno, Pekarska 53, 656 91 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Gaspar P Pinto
- Loschmidt Laboratories, Department of Experimental Biology and RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5/A13, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic; International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital Brno, Pekarska 53, 656 91 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Milos Musil
- Loschmidt Laboratories, Department of Experimental Biology and RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5/A13, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic; International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital Brno, Pekarska 53, 656 91 Brno, Czech Republic; IT4Innovations Centre of Excellence, Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology, 61266 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Jan Stourac
- Loschmidt Laboratories, Department of Experimental Biology and RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5/A13, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic; International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital Brno, Pekarska 53, 656 91 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Jiri Damborsky
- Loschmidt Laboratories, Department of Experimental Biology and RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5/A13, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic; International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital Brno, Pekarska 53, 656 91 Brno, Czech Republic.
| | - David Bednar
- Loschmidt Laboratories, Department of Experimental Biology and RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5/A13, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
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Schwark DG, Schmitt MA, Fisk JD. Directed Evolution of the Methanosarcina barkeri Pyrrolysyl tRNA/aminoacyl tRNA Synthetase Pair for Rapid Evaluation of Sense Codon Reassignment Potential. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:E895. [PMID: 33477414 PMCID: PMC7830368 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22020895] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2020] [Revised: 01/10/2021] [Accepted: 01/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Genetic code expansion has largely focused on the reassignment of amber stop codons to insert single copies of non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) into proteins. Increasing effort has been directed at employing the set of aminoacyl tRNA synthetase (aaRS) variants previously evolved for amber suppression to incorporate multiple copies of ncAAs in response to sense codons in Escherichia coli. Predicting which sense codons are most amenable to reassignment and which orthogonal translation machinery is best suited to each codon is challenging. This manuscript describes the directed evolution of a new, highly efficient variant of the Methanosarcina barkeri pyrrolysyl orthogonal tRNA/aaRS pair that activates and incorporates tyrosine. The evolved M. barkeri tRNA/aaRS pair reprograms the amber stop codon with 98.1 ± 3.6% efficiency in E. coli DH10B, rivaling the efficiency of the wild-type tyrosine-incorporating Methanocaldococcus jannaschii orthogonal pair. The new orthogonal pair is deployed for the rapid evaluation of sense codon reassignment potential using our previously developed fluorescence-based screen. Measurements of sense codon reassignment efficiencies with the evolved M. barkeri machinery are compared with related measurements employing the M. jannaschii orthogonal pair system. Importantly, we observe different patterns of sense codon reassignment efficiency for the M. jannaschii tyrosyl and M. barkeri pyrrolysyl systems, suggesting that particular codons will be better suited to reassignment by different orthogonal pairs. A broad evaluation of sense codon reassignment efficiencies to tyrosine with the M. barkeri system will highlight the most promising positions at which the M. barkeri orthogonal pair may infiltrate the E. coli genetic code.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - John D. Fisk
- Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado Denver, Campus Box 194, P.O. Box 173364, Denver, CO 80217-3364, USA; (D.G.S.); (M.A.S.)
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Unger EK, Keller JP, Altermatt M, Liang R, Matsui A, Dong C, Hon OJ, Yao Z, Sun J, Banala S, Flanigan ME, Jaffe DA, Hartanto S, Carlen J, Mizuno GO, Borden PM, Shivange AV, Cameron LP, Sinning S, Underhill SM, Olson DE, Amara SG, Temple Lang D, Rudnick G, Marvin JS, Lavis LD, Lester HA, Alvarez VA, Fisher AJ, Prescher JA, Kash TL, Yarov-Yarovoy V, Gradinaru V, Looger LL, Tian L. Directed Evolution of a Selective and Sensitive Serotonin Sensor via Machine Learning. Cell 2020; 183:1986-2002.e26. [PMID: 33333022 PMCID: PMC8025677 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.11.040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 88] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2019] [Revised: 06/22/2020] [Accepted: 11/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Serotonin plays a central role in cognition and is the target of most pharmaceuticals for psychiatric disorders. Existing drugs have limited efficacy; creation of improved versions will require better understanding of serotonergic circuitry, which has been hampered by our inability to monitor serotonin release and transport with high spatial and temporal resolution. We developed and applied a binding-pocket redesign strategy, guided by machine learning, to create a high-performance, soluble, fluorescent serotonin sensor (iSeroSnFR), enabling optical detection of millisecond-scale serotonin transients. We demonstrate that iSeroSnFR can be used to detect serotonin release in freely behaving mice during fear conditioning, social interaction, and sleep/wake transitions. We also developed a robust assay of serotonin transporter function and modulation by drugs. We expect that both machine-learning-guided binding-pocket redesign and iSeroSnFR will have broad utility for the development of other sensors and in vitro and in vivo serotonin detection, respectively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth K Unger
- Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Chemistry, Statistics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Physiology and Membrane Biology, the Center for Neuroscience, and Graduate Programs in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Jacob P Keller
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20174, USA
| | - Michael Altermatt
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Ruqiang Liang
- Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Chemistry, Statistics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Physiology and Membrane Biology, the Center for Neuroscience, and Graduate Programs in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Aya Matsui
- Laboratory on Neurobiology of Compulsive Behaviors, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Chunyang Dong
- Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Chemistry, Statistics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Physiology and Membrane Biology, the Center for Neuroscience, and Graduate Programs in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Olivia J Hon
- Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Zi Yao
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Junqing Sun
- Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Chemistry, Statistics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Physiology and Membrane Biology, the Center for Neuroscience, and Graduate Programs in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Samba Banala
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20174, USA
| | - Meghan E Flanigan
- Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - David A Jaffe
- Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Chemistry, Statistics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Physiology and Membrane Biology, the Center for Neuroscience, and Graduate Programs in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Samantha Hartanto
- Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Chemistry, Statistics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Physiology and Membrane Biology, the Center for Neuroscience, and Graduate Programs in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Jane Carlen
- Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Chemistry, Statistics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Physiology and Membrane Biology, the Center for Neuroscience, and Graduate Programs in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Grace O Mizuno
- Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Chemistry, Statistics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Physiology and Membrane Biology, the Center for Neuroscience, and Graduate Programs in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Phillip M Borden
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20174, USA
| | - Amol V Shivange
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Lindsay P Cameron
- Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Chemistry, Statistics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Physiology and Membrane Biology, the Center for Neuroscience, and Graduate Programs in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Steffen Sinning
- Department of Pharmacology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Suzanne M Underhill
- Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, National Institute on Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - David E Olson
- Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Chemistry, Statistics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Physiology and Membrane Biology, the Center for Neuroscience, and Graduate Programs in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Susan G Amara
- Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, National Institute on Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Duncan Temple Lang
- Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Chemistry, Statistics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Physiology and Membrane Biology, the Center for Neuroscience, and Graduate Programs in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Gary Rudnick
- Department of Pharmacology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Jonathan S Marvin
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20174, USA
| | - Luke D Lavis
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20174, USA
| | - Henry A Lester
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Veronica A Alvarez
- Laboratory on Neurobiology of Compulsive Behaviors, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Andrew J Fisher
- Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Chemistry, Statistics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Physiology and Membrane Biology, the Center for Neuroscience, and Graduate Programs in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Jennifer A Prescher
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Thomas L Kash
- Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Vladimir Yarov-Yarovoy
- Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Chemistry, Statistics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Physiology and Membrane Biology, the Center for Neuroscience, and Graduate Programs in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Viviana Gradinaru
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Loren L Looger
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20174, USA.
| | - Lin Tian
- Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Chemistry, Statistics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Physiology and Membrane Biology, the Center for Neuroscience, and Graduate Programs in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology, Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
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Cheng C, Haider J, Liu P, Yang J, Tan Z, Huang T, Lin J, Jiang M, Liu H, Zhu L. Engineered LPMO Significantly Boosting Cellulase-Catalyzed Depolymerization of Cellulose. J Agric Food Chem 2020; 68:15257-15266. [PMID: 33290065 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.0c05979] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) play a crucial role in the enzymatic depolymerization of cellulose through oxidative cleavage of the glycosidic bond in the highly recalcitrant crystalline cellulose region. Improving the activity of LPMOs is of considerable importance for second-generation biorefinery. In this study, we identified a beneficial amino acid substitution (N526S) located in the cellulose binding module (CBM) of HcLPMO10 (LPMO of Hahella chejuensis) using directed evolution. The improved variant HcLPMO10 M1 (N526S) exhibits 2.1-fold higher activity for the H2O2 production, 2.7-fold higher oxidation activity, and 1.9-fold higher binding capacity toward cellulose compared with those of the wild type (WT). Furthermore, M1 shows 2.1-fold higher activity for degradation of crystalline cellulose in synergy with cellulase, compared to the WT. Structural analysis through molecular modeling and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation revealed that the substitution N526S located in the CBM likely stabilizes the cellulose binding surface and enhances the binding capacity of HcLPMO10 to cellulose, thereby enhancing enzyme activity. These findings demonstrate the important role of the CBM in the catalytic function of LPMO.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chao Cheng
- State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211800, P. R. China
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
| | - Junaid Haider
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P. R. China
- National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
| | - Pi Liu
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
- National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
| | - Jianhua Yang
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
- National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
| | - Zijian Tan
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
- National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
| | - Tianchen Huang
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
- Department of Biological Engineering, College of Food and Bioengineering, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471023, P. R. China
| | - Jianping Lin
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
- National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
| | - Min Jiang
- State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211800, P. R. China
| | - Haifeng Liu
- Institute of Chemistry, NAWI Graz, BioTechMed Graz, University of Graz, Heinrichstrasse 28, Graz 8010, Austria
| | - Leilei Zhu
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
- National Technology Innovation Center of Synthetic Biology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, P. R. China
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45
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Álvarez B, Mencía M, de Lorenzo V, Fernández LÁ. In vivo diversification of target genomic sites using processive base deaminase fusions blocked by dCas9. Nat Commun 2020; 11:6436. [PMID: 33353963 PMCID: PMC7755918 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20230-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2019] [Accepted: 11/20/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
In vivo mutagenesis systems accelerate directed protein evolution but often show restricted capabilities and deleterious off-site mutations on cells. To overcome these limitations, here we report an in vivo platform to diversify specific DNA segments based on protein fusions between various base deaminases (BD) and the T7 RNA polymerase (T7RNAP) that recognizes a cognate promoter oriented towards the target sequence. Transcriptional elongation of these fusions generates transitions C to T or A to G on both DNA strands and in long DNA segments. To delimit the boundaries of the diversified DNA, the catalytically dead Cas9 (dCas9) is tethered with custom-designed crRNAs as a "roadblock" for BD-T7RNAP elongation. Using this T7-targeted dCas9-limited in vivo mutagenesis (T7-DIVA) system, rapid molecular evolution of the antibiotic resistance gene TEM-1 is achieved. While the efficiency is demonstrated in E. coli, the system can be adapted to a variety of bacterial and eukaryotic hosts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beatriz Álvarez
- Department of Microbial Biotechnology, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CNB-CSIC), Darwin 3, Campus UAM Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain
| | - Mario Mencía
- Centro de Biología Molecular "Severo Ochoa" (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas - Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Nicolas Cabrera 1, Campus UAM Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain
| | - Víctor de Lorenzo
- Systems Biology Program, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CNB-CSIC), Darwin 3, Campus UAM Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain
| | - Luis Ángel Fernández
- Department of Microbial Biotechnology, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CNB-CSIC), Darwin 3, Campus UAM Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain.
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46
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Gao S, Xu X, Zeng W, Xu S, Lyv Y, Feng Y, Kai G, Zhou J, Chen J. Efficient Biosynthesis of (2 S)-Eriodictyol from (2 S)-Naringenin in Saccharomyces cerevisiae through a Combination of Promoter Adjustment and Directed Evolution. ACS Synth Biol 2020; 9:3288-3297. [PMID: 33226782 DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.0c00346] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
The compound (2S)-eriodictyol is an important flavonoid that can be derived from (2S)-naringenin through flavonoid 3'-hydroxylase (F3'H) catalyzation. F3'H is a cytochrome P450 enzyme that requires a cytochrome P450 reductase (CPR) to function. However, P450s have limited applications in industrial scale biosynthesis, owing to their low activity. Here, an efficient SmF3'H and a matched SmCPR were identified from Silybum marianum. To improve the efficiency of SmF3'H, we established a high-throughput detection method for (2S)-eriodictyol, in which the promoter combination of SmF3'H and SmCPR were optimized in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The results revealed that SmF3'H/SmCPR should be expressed by using promoters with similar and strong expression levels. Furthermore, directed evolution was applied to further improve the efficiency of SmF3'H/SmCPR. With the optimized promoter and mutated combinations SmF3'HD285N/SmCPRI453V, the (2S)-eriodictyol titer was improved to 3.3 g/L, the highest titer in currently available reports. These results indicated that S. cerevisiae is an ideal platform for functional expression of flavonoid related P450 enzymes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Song Gao
- National Engineering Laboratory for Cereal Fermentation Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China
- Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education and School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China
| | - Xiaoyu Xu
- Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education and School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China
| | - Weizhu Zeng
- Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education and School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China
| | - Sha Xu
- National Engineering Laboratory for Cereal Fermentation Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China
- Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education and School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China
| | - Yunbin Lyv
- National Engineering Laboratory for Cereal Fermentation Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China
- Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education and School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China
| | - Yue Feng
- College of Pharmaceutical Science, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310053, China
| | - Guoyin Kai
- College of Pharmaceutical Science, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310053, China
| | - Jingwen Zhou
- National Engineering Laboratory for Cereal Fermentation Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China
- Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education and School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China
- Jiangsu Provisional Research Center for Bioactive Product Processing Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China
- Science Center for Future Foods, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
| | - Jian Chen
- National Engineering Laboratory for Cereal Fermentation Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China
- Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education and School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China
- Jiangsu Provisional Research Center for Bioactive Product Processing Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, China
- Science Center for Future Foods, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
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47
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Otten R, Pádua RAP, Bunzel HA, Nguyen V, Pitsawong W, Patterson M, Sui S, Perry SL, Cohen AE, Hilvert D, Kern D. How directed evolution reshapes the energy landscape in an enzyme to boost catalysis. Science 2020; 370:1442-1446. [PMID: 33214289 PMCID: PMC9616100 DOI: 10.1126/science.abd3623] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2020] [Accepted: 11/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
The advent of biocatalysts designed computationally and optimized by laboratory evolution provides an opportunity to explore molecular strategies for augmenting catalytic function. Applying a suite of nuclear magnetic resonance, crystallography, and stopped-flow techniques to an enzyme designed for an elementary proton transfer reaction, we show how directed evolution gradually altered the conformational ensemble of the protein scaffold to populate a narrow, highly active conformational ensemble and accelerate this transformation by nearly nine orders of magnitude. Mutations acquired during optimization enabled global conformational changes, including high-energy backbone rearrangements, that cooperatively organized the catalytic base and oxyanion stabilizer, thus perfecting transition-state stabilization. The development of protein catalysts for many chemical transformations could be facilitated by explicitly sampling conformational substates during design and specifically stabilizing productive substates over all unproductive conformations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renee Otten
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Biochemistry, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, USA
| | - Ricardo A P Pádua
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Biochemistry, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, USA
| | - H Adrian Bunzel
- Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Vy Nguyen
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Biochemistry, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, USA
| | - Warintra Pitsawong
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Biochemistry, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, USA
| | - MacKenzie Patterson
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Biochemistry, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, USA
| | - Shuo Sui
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Applied Life Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - Sarah L Perry
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Applied Life Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - Aina E Cohen
- Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
| | - Donald Hilvert
- Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
| | - Dorothee Kern
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Biochemistry, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, USA.
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48
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Du P, Yan S, Qian XL, Pan J, Zhang ZJ, Yu HL, Xu JH. Engineering Bacillus subtilis Isoleucine Dioxygenase for Efficient Synthesis of (2 S,3 R,4 S)-4-Hydroxyisoleucine. J Agric Food Chem 2020; 68:14555-14563. [PMID: 33249835 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.0c06544] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Isoleucine dioxygenase (IDO)-catalyzed hydroxylation of isoleucine is a promising method for the synthesis of the diabetic drug (2S,3R,4S)-4-hydroxyisoleucine [(2S,3R,4S)-4-HIL]. However, the low activity of IDO significantly limits its practical application. In this work, a high-throughput screening method was developed and directed evolution was performed on the IDO from Bacillus subtilis, resulting in a double mutant with improvements in specific activity, protein expression level, and fermentation titer of 3.2-, 2.8-, and 9.4-fold, respectively. l-Isoleucine (228 mM) was completely converted to (2S,3R,4S)-4-HIL by the best variant with a space-time yield of up to 80.8 g L-1 d-1, which is the highest record reported so far. With a further increase of the substrate loading to 1 M, a high conversion of 91% could also be achieved. At last, enzymatic synthesis of (2S,3R,4S)-4-HIL was successfully carried out on a 3 L scale, indicating tremendous potential of the IDO variant I162T/T182N for green and efficient production of (2S,3R,4S)-4-HIL.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ping Du
- State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Centre for Biomanufacturing, School of Biotechnology, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
| | - Shuai Yan
- Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Shanghai General Hospital Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200080, China
| | - Xiao-Long Qian
- State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Centre for Biomanufacturing, School of Biotechnology, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
| | - Jiang Pan
- State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Centre for Biomanufacturing, School of Biotechnology, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
| | - Zhi-Jun Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Centre for Biomanufacturing, School of Biotechnology, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
| | - Hui-Lei Yu
- State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Centre for Biomanufacturing, School of Biotechnology, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
| | - Jian-He Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Centre for Biomanufacturing, School of Biotechnology, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
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49
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Zurek PJ, Knyphausen P, Neufeld K, Pushpanath A, Hollfelder F. UMI-linked consensus sequencing enables phylogenetic analysis of directed evolution. Nat Commun 2020; 11:6023. [PMID: 33243970 PMCID: PMC7691348 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19687-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2020] [Accepted: 10/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
The success of protein evolution campaigns is strongly dependent on the sequence context in which mutations are introduced, stemming from pervasive non-additive interactions between a protein's amino acids ('intra-gene epistasis'). Our limited understanding of such epistasis hinders the correct prediction of the functional contributions and adaptive potential of mutations. Here we present a straightforward unique molecular identifier (UMI)-linked consensus sequencing workflow (UMIC-seq) that simplifies mapping of evolutionary trajectories based on full-length sequences. Attaching UMIs to gene variants allows accurate consensus generation for closely related genes with nanopore sequencing. We exemplify the utility of this approach by reconstructing the artificial phylogeny emerging in three rounds of directed evolution of an amine dehydrogenase biocatalyst via ultrahigh throughput droplet screening. Uniquely, we are able to identify lineages and their founding variant, as well as non-additive interactions between mutations within a full gene showing sign epistasis. Access to deep and accurate long reads will facilitate prediction of key beneficial mutations and adaptive potential based on in silico analysis of large sequence datasets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Jannis Zurek
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1GA, UK
- Johnson Matthey Plc, Cambridge, CB4 0WE, UK
| | - Philipp Knyphausen
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1GA, UK
| | - Katharina Neufeld
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1GA, UK
- Johnson Matthey Plc, Cambridge, CB4 0WE, UK
| | | | - Florian Hollfelder
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1GA, UK.
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50
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Payandeh Z, Rahbar MR, Jahangiri A, Hashemi ZS, Zakeri A, Jafarisani M, Rasaee MJ, Khalili S. Design of an engineered ACE2 as a novel therapeutics against COVID-19. J Theor Biol 2020; 505:110425. [PMID: 32735992 PMCID: PMC7387268 DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2020.110425] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2020] [Revised: 07/05/2020] [Accepted: 07/27/2020] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
The interaction between the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) plays a pivotal role in virus entry into the host cells. Since recombinant ACE2 protein has been suggested as an anti-SARS-CoV-2 therapeutic agent, this study was conducted to design an ACE2 protein with more desirable properties. In this regard, the amino acids with central roles in enzymatic activity of the ACE2 were substituted. Moreover, saturation mutagenesis at the interaction interface between the ACE2 and RBD was performed to increase their interaction affinity. The best mutations to increase the structural and thermal stability of the ACE2 were also selected based on B factors and mutation effects. The obtained resulted revealed that the Arg273Gln and Thr445Gly mutation have drastically reduced the binding affinity of the angiotensin-II into the active site of ACE2. The Thr27Arg mutation was determined to be the most potent mutation to increase the binding affinity. The Asp427Arg mutation was done to decrease the flexibility of the region with high B factor. The Pro451Met mutation along with the Gly448Trp mutation was predicted to increase the thermodynamic stability and thermostability of the ACE2. The designed therapeutic ACE2 would have no enzymatic activity while it could bear stronger interaction with Spike glycoprotein of the SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, decreased in vivo enzymatic degradation would be anticipated due to increased thermostability. This engineered ACE2 could be exploited as a novel therapeutic agent against COVID-19 after necessary evaluations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zahra Payandeh
- Immunology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
| | - Mohammad Reza Rahbar
- Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Abolfazl Jahangiri
- Applied Microbiology Research Center, Systems Biology and Poisonings Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Zahra Sadat Hashemi
- ATMP Department, Breast Cancer Research Center, Motamed Cancer Institute, ACECR, Tehran, Iran
| | - Alireza Zakeri
- Department of Biology Sciences, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Moslem Jafarisani
- Clinical Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran
| | - Mohammad Javad Rasaee
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Saeed Khalili
- Department of Biology Sciences, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran.
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