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. 2017 Jan;10(1):22-24.
doi: 10.1111/1751-7915.12452. Epub 2016 Nov 11.

When directed evolution met ancestral enzyme resurrection

Miguel Alcalde  1
Affiliations

When directed evolution met ancestral enzyme resurrection

Miguel Alcalde. Microb Biotechnol. 2017 Jan.

Abstract

The directed evolution of ancestral -resurrected- enzymes can give a new twist in protein engineering approaches towards more versatile and robust biocatalysts.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Directed evolution of ancestral enzymes. From a modern enzyme scaffold, a plausiable approximation to the ancestral node is predicted through bioinformatic computation (protein sequence reconstruction). The sequence of the ancestral node is then synthesized and functional expressed (resurrected) in a suitable host (e.g. bacteria or yeast). Thereafter, the resurrected enzyme is subjected to directed evolution towards latent activities those are hardly shown by the modern counterpart. The strong stability of the resurrected node can help alleviate the detrimental effect of using high mutational loads during the directed evolution campaign.
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