scholarly journals Directed evolution improves the catalytic efficiency of TEV protease

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateo I Sanchez ◽  
Alice Y Ting

AbstractTobacco etch virus protease (TEV) is one of the most widely-used proteases in biotechnology because of its exquisite sequence-specificity. A limitation, however, is its slow catalytic rate. We developed a generalizable yeast-based platform for directed evolution of protease catalytic properties. Protease activity is read out via proteolytic release of a membrane-anchored transcription factor, and we temporally regulate access to TEV’s cleavage substrate using a photosensory LOV domain. By gradually decreasing light exposure time, we enriched faster variants of TEV over multiple rounds of selection. Our S153N mutant (uTEV1Δ), when incorporated into the calcium integrator FLARE, improved the signal/background ratio by 27-fold, and enabled recording of neuronal activity in culture with 60-second temporal resolution. Given the widespread use of TEV in biotechnology, both our evolved TEV mutants and the directed evolution platform used to generate them, could be beneficial across a wide range of applications.

Microbiology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 167 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Feixue Liu ◽  
Dinesh Singh Shah ◽  
Laszlo Csetenyi ◽  
Geoffrey Michael Gadd

Biomineralization is a ubiquitous process in organisms to produce biominerals, and a wide range of metallic nanoscale minerals can be produced as a consequence of the interactions of micro-organisms with metals and minerals. Copper-bearing nanoparticles produced by biomineralization mechanisms have a variety of applications due to their remarkable catalytic efficiency, antibacterial properties and low production cost. In this study, we demonstrate the biotechnological potential of copper carbonate nanoparticles (CuNPs) synthesized using a carbonate-enriched biomass-free ureolytic fungal spent culture supernatant. The efficiency of the CuNPs in pollutant remediation was investigated using a dye (methyl red) and a toxic metal oxyanion, chromate Cr(VI). The biogenic CuNPs exhibited excellent catalytic properties in a Fenton-like reaction to degrade methyl red, and efficiently removed Cr(VI) from solution due to both adsorption and reduction of Cr(VI). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) identified the oxidation of reducing Cu species of the CuNPs during the reaction with Cr(VI). This work shows that urease-positive fungi can play an important role not only in the biorecovery of metals through the production of insoluble nanoscale carbonates, but also provides novel and simple strategies for the preparation of sustainable nanomineral products with catalytic properties applicable to the bioremediation of organic and metallic pollutants, solely and in mixtures.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateo I. Sanchez ◽  
Alice Y. Ting

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Parinthon Nearmnala ◽  
Manutsawee Thanaburakorn ◽  
Watanalai Panbangred ◽  
Pimchai Chaiyen ◽  
Narupat Hongdilokkul

AbstractIn vivo selection systems are powerful tools for directed evolution of enzymes. The selection pressure of the systems can be tuned by regulating the expression levels of the catalysts. In this work, we engineered a selection system for laboratory evolution of highly active enzymes by incorporating a translationally suppressing cis repressor as well as an inducible promoter to impart stringent and tunable selection pressure. We demonstrated the utility of our selection system by performing directed evolution experiments using TEM β-lactamase as the model enzyme. Five evolutionary rounds afforded a highly active variant exhibiting 440-fold improvement in catalytic efficiency. We also showed that, without the cis repressor, the selection system cannot provide sufficient selection pressure required for evolving highly efficient TEM β-lactamase. The selection system should be applicable for the exploration of catalytic perfection of a wide range of enzymes.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebekah P. Dyer ◽  
Hariny M. Isoda ◽  
Gabriela S. Salcedo ◽  
Gaetano Speciale ◽  
Madison H. Fletcher ◽  
...  

AbstractThe botulinum neurotoxin serotype A (BoNT/A) cuts a single peptide bond in SNAP25, an activity used to treat a wide range of diseases. Reengineering the substrate specificity of BoNT/A’s protease domain (LC/A) could expand its therapeutic applications; however, LC/A’s extended substrate recognition (≈60 residues) challenges conventional approaches. We report a directed evolution method for retargeting LC/A’s substrate and retaining its exquisite specificity. The resultant eight-mutation LC/A (omLC/A) has improved cleavage specificity and catalytic efficiency (1300- and 120-fold, respectively) for SNAP23 versus SNAP25 compared to a previously reported LC/A variant. Importantly, the BoNT/A holotoxin equipped with omLC/A infiltrates neurons and retains its SNAP23 activity. The identification of substrate control loops outside BoNT/A’s active site could guide the design of improved BoNT proteases and inhibitors.One Sentence SummaryDirected evolution of the BoNT/A protease targets a new cellular protein, SNAP23, expanding its therapeutic potential.


1995 ◽  
Vol 312 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Van Rompaey ◽  
P Proost ◽  
H Van den Berghe ◽  
P Marynen

Human alpha 2-macroglobulin (alpha 2M) inhibits a broad spectrum of proteases by changing its conformation and physically confining the enzyme. The inhibitory spectrum of alpha 2M is defined by a stretch of 39 amino acids, the bait region, located near the middle of the alpha 2M monomers. To investigate whether a new inhibitory specificity can be introduced by the manipulation of the bait region, recombinant alpha 2M (r alpha 2M) was produced in which the primary cleavage site was replaced by a heptapeptide containing the cleavage specificity of tobacco etch virus (TEV) protease. This protease is not inhibited by wild-type alpha 2M. The r alpha 2M, produced in an episomal expression system, was fully functional and able to inhibit the tobacco etch virus protease according to its normal ‘trap’ mechanism. The manipulation of the bait region of alpha 2M thus allows the design of new, specific protease inhibitors.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bubun Banerjee ◽  
Gurpreet Kaur ◽  
Navdeep Kaur

: Metal-free organocatalysts are becoming an important tool for the sustainable developments of various bioactive heterocycles. On the other hand, during last two decades, calix[n]arenes have been gaining considerable attention due to their wide range of applicability in the field of supramolecular chemistry. Recently, sulfonic acid functionalized calix[n] arenes are being employed as an efficient alternative catalyst for the synthesis of various bioactive scaffolds. In this review we have summarized the catalytic efficiency of p-sulfonic acid calix[n]arenes for the synthesis of diverse biologically promising scaffolds under various reaction conditions. There is no such review available in the literature showing the catalytic applicability of p-sulfonic acid calix[n]arenes. Therefore, we strongly believe that this review will surely attract those researchers who are interested about this fascinating organocatalyst.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (14) ◽  
pp. 1310-1323
Author(s):  
Andrea Bosso ◽  
Antimo Di Maro ◽  
Valeria Cafaro ◽  
Alberto Di Donato ◽  
Eugenio Notomista ◽  
...  

Host defence peptides (HDPs) are powerful modulators of cellular responses to various types of insults caused by pathogen agents. To date, a wide range of HDPs, from species of different kingdoms including bacteria, plant and animal with extreme diversity in structure and biological activity, have been described. Apart from a limited number of peptides ribosomally synthesized, a large number of promising and multifunctional HDPs have been identified within protein precursors, with properties not necessarily related to innate immunity, consolidating the fascinating hypothesis that proteins have a second or even multiple biological mission in the form of one or more bio-active peptides. Among these precursors, enzymes constitute certainly an interesting group, because most of them are mainly globular and characterized by a fine specific internal structure closely related to their catalytic properties and also because they are yet little considered as potential HDP releasing proteins. In this regard, the main aim of the present review is to describe a panel of HDPs, identified in all canonical classes of enzymes, and to provide a detailed description on hydrolases and their corresponding HDPs, as there seems to exist a striking link between these structurally sophisticated catalysts and their high content in cationic and amphipathic cryptic peptides.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 1157
Author(s):  
Pablo Aza ◽  
Felipe de Salas ◽  
Gonzalo Molpeceres ◽  
David Rodríguez-Escribano ◽  
Iñigo de la Fuente ◽  
...  

Laccases secreted by saprotrophic basidiomycete fungi are versatile biocatalysts able to oxidize a wide range of aromatic compounds using oxygen as the sole requirement. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a preferred host for engineering fungal laccases. To assist the difficult secretion of active enzymes by yeast, the native signal peptide is usually replaced by the preproleader of S. cerevisiae alfa mating factor (MFα1). However, in most cases, only basal enzyme levels are obtained. During directed evolution in S. cerevisiae of laccases fused to the α-factor preproleader, we demonstrated that mutations accumulated in the signal peptide notably raised enzyme secretion. Here we describe different protein engineering approaches carried out to enhance the laccase activity detected in the liquid extracts of S. cerevisiae cultures. We demonstrate the improved secretion of native and engineered laccases by using the fittest mutated α-factor preproleader obtained through successive laccase evolution campaigns in our lab. Special attention is also paid to the role of protein N-glycosylation in laccase production and properties, and to the introduction of conserved amino acids through consensus design enabling the expression of certain laccases otherwise not produced by the yeast. Finally, we revise the contribution of mutations accumulated in laccase coding sequence (CDS) during previous directed evolution campaigns that facilitate enzyme production.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Fan ◽  
Enkhtuya Bayar ◽  
Yuanyuan Ren ◽  
Yafang Hu ◽  
Yinghua Chen ◽  
...  

Abstract Tobacco etch virus protease (TEVp) is a useful tool for removing fusion tag, but wild type TEVp shows less oxidative stability, which limits its application under the oxidized redox state to facilitate disulfide bonds formation for refolding disulfide-bonded proteins. Previously, we combined six mutations into the TEVp to generate the TEVp5M for obviously increasing the protein solubility and decreasing the auto-cleavage. In this work, we introduced and combined C19S, C110S and C130S mutations into the TEVp5M to generate seven variants, analyzed protein solubility and the cleavage activity of the constructs in each of three E. coli strains including BL21(DE3), BL21(DE3)pLys, and Rossetta(DE3), and those of the optimized soluble variants in the oxidative cytoplasm of Origami(DE3) under the same induction conditions. The results suggested that desirable protein solubility, cleavage activity and oxidative stability are not combined. Unlike that of the C19S, introduction of the C110S and/or C130S less affected protein solubility but increased tolerance to the oxidative redox state. Use of the TEVp5MC110S/C130S variant, the refolded disulfide-rich bovine enteropeptidase or maize peroxidase was released via cleaving the sequence between the target protein and the cellulose-binding module bound to regenerated amorphous cellulose.


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