Miriam Kaltenbach

Dynamics and Constraints of Enzyme Evolution

The wealth of distinct enzymatic functions found in nature is impressive and the on-going evolutionary divergence of enzymatic functions continues to generate new and efficient catalysts, which can be seen through the recent emergence of enzymes able to degrade xenobiotics. However, recreating such processes in the laboratory has been met with only moderate success. What are the factors that lead to suboptimal research outputs? In this review, we discuss constraints on enzyme evolution, which can restrict evolutionary trajectories and lead to evolutionary dead-ends. We highlight recent studies that have used experimental evolution to mimic different aspects of enzymatic adaptation under simple, controlled settings to shed light on evolutionary dynamics and constraints. A better understanding of these constraints will lead to the development of more efficient strategies for directed evolution and enzyme engineering.

Reverse evolution leads to genotypic incompatibility despite functional and active site convergence

Understanding the extent to which enzyme evolution is reversible can shed light on the fundamental relationship between protein sequence, structure, and function. Here, we perform an experimental test of evolutionary reversibility using directed evolution from a phosphotriesterase to an arylesterase, and back, and examine the underlying molecular basis. We find that wild-type phosphotriesterase function could be restored (>104-fold activity increase), but via an alternative set of mutations. The enzyme active site converged towards its original state, indicating evolutionary constraints imposed by catalytic requirements. We reveal that extensive epistasis prevents reversions and necessitates fixation of new mutations, leading to a functionally identical sequence. Many amino acid exchanges between the new and original enzyme are not tolerated, implying sequence incompatibility. Therefore, the evolution was phenotypically reversible but genotypically irreversible. Our study illustrates that the enzymes adaptive landscape is highly rugged, and different functional sequences may constitute separate fitness peaks. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06492.001

SNAP dendrimers: multivalent protein display on dendrimer-like DNA for directed evolution.

Display systems connect a protein with the DNA encoding it. Such systems (e.g., phage or ribosome display) have found widespread application in the directed evolution of protein binders and constitute a key element of the biotechnological toolkit. In this proof‐of‐concept study we describe the construction of a system that allows the display of multiple copies of a protein of interest in order to take advantage of avidity effects during affinity panning. To this end, dendrimer‐like DNA is used as a scaffold with docking points that can join the coding DNA with multiple protein copies. Each DNA construct is compartmentalised in water‐in‐oil emulsion droplets. The corresponding protein is expressed, in vitro, inside the droplets as a SNAP‐tag fusion. The covalent bond between DNA and the SNAP‐tag is created by reaction with dendrimer‐bound benzylguanine (BG). The ability to form dendrimer‐like DNA straightforwardly from oligonucleotides bearing BG allowed the comparison of a series of templates differing in size, valency and position of BG. In model selections the most efficient constructs show recoveries of up to 0.86 % and up to 400‐fold enrichments. The comparison of mono‐ and multivalent constructs suggests that the avidity effect enhances enrichment by up to fivefold and recovery by up to 25‐fold. Our data establish a multivalent format for SNAP‐display based on dendrimer‐like DNA as the first in vitro display system with defined tailor‐made valencies and explore a new application for DNA nanostructures. These data suggest that multivalent SNAP dendrimers have the potential to facilitate the selection of protein binders especially during early rounds of directed evolution, allowing a larger diversity of candidate binders to be recovered.

An experimental framework for improved selection of binding proteins using SNAP display

Display technologies (e.g. phage and ribosome display) are powerful tools for selecting and evolving protein binders against various target molecules. SNAP display is a DNA display technology that is conducted entirely in vitro: DNA encoding a library of variants is encapsulated in water-in-oil droplets wherein in vitro protein expression and covalent coupling to the encoding DNA occurs. Here, we explore critical factors for the successful performance of SNAP display based on a set of experiments designed to measure and quantify to what extent they affect selection efficiency. We find that, in SNAP display, the reconstituted cell free expression system PURExpress led to 1.5-fold more active protein and achieved 3.5-fold greater DNA recovery in model selections compared to the RTS 100 Escherichia coli lysate based expression system. We report on the influence parameters including droplet occupancy, valency and selection stringency have on recovery and enrichment. An improved procedure involving bivalent display and stringent selection against a model target, Her2, led to a 10(7)-fold enrichment of a DARPin (H10-2-G3, known to bind Her2 with picomolar affinity) over a non-binding DARPin after three rounds of selection. Furthermore, when spiked into a mixture of DARPins with different affinities, DARPin H10-2-G3 outcompeted all other variants demonstrating SNAP displays ability to efficiently resolve clones with affinities in the nano- to picomolar range. These data establish SNAP display as an in vitro protein engineering tool for isolating protein binders and provide a framework for troubleshooting affinity selections.

Functional Trade-Offs in Promiscuous Enzymes Cannot Be Explained by Intrinsic Mutational Robustness of the Native Activity.

The extent to which an emerging new function trades off with the original function is a key characteristic of the dynamics of enzyme evolution. Various cases of laboratory evolution have unveiled a characteristic trend; a large increase in a new, promiscuous activity is often accompanied by only a mild reduction of the native, original activity. A model that associates weak trade-offs with “evolvability” was put forward, which proposed that enzymes possess mutational robustness in the native activity and plasticity in promiscuous activities. This would enable the acquisition of a new function without compromising the original one, reducing the benefit of early gene duplication and therefore the selection pressure thereon. Yet, to date, no experimental study has examined this hypothesis directly. Here, we investigate the causes of weak trade-offs by systematically characterizing adaptive mutations that occurred in two cases of evolutionary transitions in enzyme function: (1) from phosphotriesterase to arylesterase, and (2) from atrazine chlorohydrolase to melamine deaminase. Mutational analyses in various genetic backgrounds revealed that, in contrast to the prevailing model, the native activity is less robust to mutations than the promiscuous activity. For example, in phosphotriesterase, the deleterious effect of individual mutations on the native phosphotriesterase activity is much larger than their positive effect on the promiscuous arylesterase activity. Our observations suggest a revision of the established model: weak trade-offs are not caused by an intrinsic robustness of the native activity and plasticity of the promiscuous activity. We propose that upon strong adaptive pressure for the new activity without selection against the original one, selected mutations will lead to the largest possible increases in the new function, but whether and to what extent they decrease the old function is irrelevant, creating a bias towards initially weak trade-offs and the emergence of generalist enzymes.

Droplets as Reaction Compartments for Protein Nanotechnology

Extreme miniaturization of biological and chemical reactions in pico- to nanoliter microdroplets is emerging as an experimental paradigm that enables more experiments to be carried out with much lower sample consumption, paving the way for high-throughput experiments. This review provides the protein scientist with an experimental framework for (a) formation of polydisperse droplets by emulsification or, alternatively, of monodisperse droplets using microfluidic devices; (b) construction of experimental rigs and microfluidic chips for this purpose; and (c) handling and analysis of droplets.