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Harnessing Conformational Plasticity to Generate Designer Enzymes

Crean, Rory M ; Gardner, Jasmine M and Kamerlin, Shina C L LU orcid (2020) In Journal of the American Chemical Society 142(26). p.11324-11342
Abstract

Recent years have witnessed an explosion of interest in understanding the role of conformational dynamics both in the evolution of new enzymatic activities from existing enzymes and in facilitating the emergence of enzymatic activity de novo on scaffolds that were previously non-catalytic. There are also an increasing number of examples in the literature of targeted engineering of conformational dynamics being successfully used to alter enzyme selectivity and activity. Despite the obvious importance of conformational dynamics to both enzyme function and evolvability, many (although not all) computational design approaches still focus either on pure sequence-based approaches or on using structures with limited flexibility to guide the... (More)

Recent years have witnessed an explosion of interest in understanding the role of conformational dynamics both in the evolution of new enzymatic activities from existing enzymes and in facilitating the emergence of enzymatic activity de novo on scaffolds that were previously non-catalytic. There are also an increasing number of examples in the literature of targeted engineering of conformational dynamics being successfully used to alter enzyme selectivity and activity. Despite the obvious importance of conformational dynamics to both enzyme function and evolvability, many (although not all) computational design approaches still focus either on pure sequence-based approaches or on using structures with limited flexibility to guide the design. However, there exist a wide variety of computational approaches that can be (re)purposed to introduce conformational dynamics as a key consideration in the design process. Coupled with laboratory evolution and more conventional existing sequence- and structure-based approaches, these techniques provide powerful tools for greatly expanding the protein engineering toolkit. This Perspective provides an overview of evolutionary studies that have dissected the role of conformational dynamics in facilitating the emergence of novel enzymes, as well as advances in computational approaches that allow one to target conformational dynamics as part of enzyme design. Harnessing conformational dynamics in engineering studies is a powerful paradigm with which to engineer the next generation of designer biocatalysts.

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author
; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
keywords
Biocatalysis, Enzymes/chemistry, Humans, Molecular Dynamics Simulation, Protein Conformation, Protein Engineering
in
Journal of the American Chemical Society
volume
142
issue
26
pages
19 pages
publisher
The American Chemical Society (ACS)
external identifiers
  • scopus:85087469032
  • pmid:32496764
ISSN
1520-5126
DOI
10.1021/jacs.0c04924
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
598ecd9d-aa48-489f-9f2e-c0fb2d1a776f
date added to LUP
2025-01-11 19:41:09
date last changed
2025-06-15 16:00:26
@article{598ecd9d-aa48-489f-9f2e-c0fb2d1a776f,
  abstract     = {{<p>Recent years have witnessed an explosion of interest in understanding the role of conformational dynamics both in the evolution of new enzymatic activities from existing enzymes and in facilitating the emergence of enzymatic activity de novo on scaffolds that were previously non-catalytic. There are also an increasing number of examples in the literature of targeted engineering of conformational dynamics being successfully used to alter enzyme selectivity and activity. Despite the obvious importance of conformational dynamics to both enzyme function and evolvability, many (although not all) computational design approaches still focus either on pure sequence-based approaches or on using structures with limited flexibility to guide the design. However, there exist a wide variety of computational approaches that can be (re)purposed to introduce conformational dynamics as a key consideration in the design process. Coupled with laboratory evolution and more conventional existing sequence- and structure-based approaches, these techniques provide powerful tools for greatly expanding the protein engineering toolkit. This Perspective provides an overview of evolutionary studies that have dissected the role of conformational dynamics in facilitating the emergence of novel enzymes, as well as advances in computational approaches that allow one to target conformational dynamics as part of enzyme design. Harnessing conformational dynamics in engineering studies is a powerful paradigm with which to engineer the next generation of designer biocatalysts.</p>}},
  author       = {{Crean, Rory M and Gardner, Jasmine M and Kamerlin, Shina C L}},
  issn         = {{1520-5126}},
  keywords     = {{Biocatalysis; Enzymes/chemistry; Humans; Molecular Dynamics Simulation; Protein Conformation; Protein Engineering}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{07}},
  number       = {{26}},
  pages        = {{11324--11342}},
  publisher    = {{The American Chemical Society (ACS)}},
  series       = {{Journal of the American Chemical Society}},
  title        = {{Harnessing Conformational Plasticity to Generate Designer Enzymes}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.0c04924}},
  doi          = {{10.1021/jacs.0c04924}},
  volume       = {{142}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}