Enzyme engineering in biomimetic compartments

Selection of a promiscuous minimalist cAMP phosphodiesterase from a library of de novo designed proteins

The ability of unevolved amino acid sequences to become biological catalysts was key to the emergence of life on Earth. However, billions of years of evolution separate complex modern enzymes from their simpler early ancestors. To probe how unevolved sequences can develop new functions, we use ultrahigh-throughput droplet microfluidics to screen for phosphoesterase activity amidst a library of more than one million sequences based on a de novo designed 4-helix bundle. Characterization of hits revealed that acquisition of function involved a large jump in sequence space enriching for truncations that removed >40% of the protein chain. Biophysical characterization of a catalytically active truncated protein revealed that it dimerizes into an α-helical structure, with the gain of function accompanied by increased structural dynamics. The identified phosphodiesterase is a manganese-dependent metalloenzyme that hydrolyses a range of phosphodiesters. It is most active towards cyclic AMP, with a rate acceleration of ~109 and a catalytic proficiency of >1014 M-1, comparable to larger enzymes shaped by billions of years of evolution.

Versatile Product Detection via Coupled Assays for Ultrahigh-Throughput Screening of Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes in Microfluidic Droplets

Enzyme discovery and directed evolution are the two major contemporary approaches for the improvement of industrial processes by biocatalysis in various fields. Customization of catalysts for improvement of single enzyme reactions or de novo reaction development is often complex and tedious. The success of screening campaigns relies on the fraction of sequence space that can be sampled, whether for evolving a particular enzyme or screening metagenomes. Ultrahigh-throughput screening (uHTS) based on in vitro compartmentalization in water-in-oil emulsion of picoliter droplets generated in microfluidic systems allows screening rates >1 kHz (or >107 per day). Screening for carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) catalyzing biotechnologically valuable reactions in this format presents an additional challenge because the released carbohydrates are difficult to monitor in high throughput. Activated substrates with large optically active hydrophobic leaving groups provide a generic optical readout, but the molecular recognition properties of sugars will be altered by the incorporation of such fluoro- or chromophores and their typically higher reactivity, as leaving groups with lowered pKa values compared to native substrates make the observation of promiscuous reactions more likely. To overcome these issues, we designed microdroplet assays in which optically inactive carbohydrate products are made visible by specific cascades: the primary reaction of an unlabeled substrate leads to an optical signal downstream. Successfully implementing such assays at the picoliter droplet scale allowed us to detect glucose, xylose, glucuronic acid, and arabinose as final products of complex oligosaccharide degradation by glycoside hydrolases by absorbance measurements. Enabling the use of uHTS for screening CAZyme reactions that have been thus far elusive will chart a route toward faster and easier development of specific and efficient biocatalysts for biovalorization, directing enzyme discovery by challenging catalysts for reaction with natural rather than model substrates.

The formation and function of plant metabolons

Metabolons are temporary structural-functional complexes of sequential enzymes of a metabolic pathway that are distinct from stable multi-enzyme complexes. Here we provide a brief history of the study of enzyme-enzyme assemblies with a particular focus on those that mediate substrate channeling in plants. Large numbers of protein complexes have been proposed for both primary and secondary metabolic pathways in plants. However, to date only four substrate channels have been demonstrated. We provide an overview of current knowledge concerning these four metabolons and explain the methodologies that are currently being applied to unravel their functions. Although the assembly of metabolons has been documented to arise through diverse mechanisms, the physical interaction within the characterized plant metabolons all appear to be driven by interaction with structural elements of the cell. We therefore pose the question as to what methodologies could be brought to bear to enhance our knowledge of plant metabolons that assemble via different mechanisms? In addressing this question, we review recent findings in non-plant systems concerning liquid droplet phase separation and enzyme chemotaxis and propose strategies via which such metabolons could be identified in plants. We additionally discuss the possibilities that could be opened up by novel approaches based on: (i) subcellular-level mass spectral imaging, (ii) proteomics, and (iii) emergent methods in structural and computational biology.

Ultrahigh-Throughput Enzyme Engineering and Discovery in In Vitro Compartments

Novel and improved biocatalysts are increasingly sourced from libraries via experimental screening. The success of such campaigns is crucially dependent on the number of candidates tested. Water-in-oil emulsion droplets can replace the classical test tube, to provide in vitro compartments as an alternative screening format, containing genotype and phenotype and enabling a readout of function. The scale-down to micrometer droplet diameters and picoliter volumes brings about a >10⁷-fold volume reduction compared to 96-well-plate screening. Droplets made in automated microfluidic devices can be integrated into modular workflows to set up multistep screening protocols involving various detection modes to sort >10⁷ variants a day with kHz frequencies. The repertoire of assays available for droplet screening covers all seven enzyme commission (EC) number classes, setting the stage for widespread use of droplet microfluidics in everyday biochemical experiments. We review the practicalities of adapting droplet screening for enzyme discovery and for detailed kinetic characterization. These new ways of working will not just accelerate discovery experiments currently limited by screening capacity but profoundly change the paradigms we can probe. By interfacing the results of ultrahigh-throughput droplet screening with next-generation sequencing and deep learning, strategies for directed evolution can be implemented, examined, and evaluated.

Growth-coupled enzyme engineering through manipulation of redox cofactor regeneration

Enzymes need to be efficient, robust, and highly specific for their effective use in commercial bioproduction. These properties can be introduced using various enzyme engineering techniques, with random mutagenesis and directed evolution (DE) often being chosen when there is a lack of structural information -or mechanistic understanding- of the enzyme. The screening or selection step of DE is the limiting part of this process, since it must ideally be (ultra)-high throughput, specifically target the catalytic activity of the enzyme and have an accurately quantifiable metric for said activity. Growth-coupling selection strategies involve coupling a desired enzyme activity to cellular metabolism and therefore growth, where growth (rate) becomes the output metric. Redox cofactors (NAD⁺/NADH and NADP⁺/NADPH) have recently been identified as promising target molecules for growth coupling, owing to their essentiality for cellular metabolism and ubiquitous nature. Redox cofactor oxidation or reduction can be disrupted through metabolic engineering and the use of specific culturing conditions, rendering the cell inviable unless a 'rescue' reaction complements the imposed metabolic deficiency. Using this principle, enzyme variants displaying improved cofactor oxidation or reduction rates can be selected for through an increased growth rate of the cell. In recent years, several E. coli strains have been developed that are deficient in the oxidation or reduction of NAD⁺/NADH and NADP⁺/NADPH pairs, and of non-canonical redox cofactor pairs NMN⁺/NMNH and NCD⁺/NCDH, which provides researchers with a versatile toolbox of enzyme engineering platforms. A range of redox cofactor dependent enzymes have since been engineered using a variety of these strains, demonstrating the power of using this growth-coupling technique for enzyme engineering. This review aims to summarize the metabolic engineering involved in creating strains auxotrophic for the reduced or oxidized state of redox cofactors, and the resulting successes in using them for enzyme engineering. Perspectives on the unique features and potential future applications of this technique are also presented.

Insertions and Deletions (Indels): A Missing Piece of the Protein Engineering Jigsaw

Over the years, protein engineers have studied nature and borrowed its tricks to accelerate protein evolution in the test tube. While there have been considerable advances, our ability to generate new proteins in the laboratory is seemingly limited. One explanation for these shortcomings may be that insertions and deletions (indels), which frequently arise in nature, are largely overlooked during protein engineering campaigns. The profound effect of indels on protein structures, by way of drastic backbone alterations, could be perceived as "saltation" events that bring about significant phenotypic changes in a single mutational step. Should we leverage these effects to accelerate protein engineering and gain access to unexplored regions of adaptive landscapes? In this Perspective, we describe the role played by indels in the functional diversification of proteins in nature and discuss their untapped potential for protein engineering, despite their often-destabilizing nature. We hope to spark a renewed interest in indels, emphasizing that their wider study and use may prove insightful and shape the future of protein engineering by unlocking unique functional changes that substitutions alone could never achieve.

Ultrahigh-Throughput Detection of Enzymatic Alcohol Dehydrogenase Activity in Microfluidic Droplets with a Direct Fluorogenic Assay

The exploration of large DNA libraries of metagenomic or synthetic origin is greatly facilitated by ultrahigh‐throughput assays that use monodisperse water‐in‐oil emulsion droplets as sequestered reaction compartments. Millions of samples can be generated and analysed in microfluidic devices at kHz speeds, requiring only micrograms of reagents. The scope of this powerful platform for the discovery of new sequence space is, however, hampered by the limited availability of assay substrates, restricting the functions and reaction types that can be investigated. Here, we broaden the scope of detectable biochemical transformations in droplet microfluidics by introducing the first fluorogenic assay for alcohol dehydrogenases (ADHs) in this format. We have synthesized substrates that release a pyranine fluorophore (8‐hydroxy‐1,3,6‐pyrenetrisulfonic acid, HPTS) when enzymatic turnover occurs. Pyranine is well retained in droplets for >6 weeks (i. e. 14‐times longer than fluorescein), avoiding product leakage and ensuring excellent assay sensitivity. Product concentrations as low as 100 nM were successfully detected, corresponding to less than one turnover per enzyme molecule on average. The potential of our substrate design was demonstrated by efficient recovery of a bona fide ADH with an >800‐fold enrichment. The repertoire of droplet screening is enlarged by this sensitive and direct fluorogenic assay to identify dehydrogenases for biocatalytic applications.

A Titratable Cell Lysis-on-Demand System for Droplet-Compartmentalized Ultrahigh-Throughput Screening in Functional Metagenomics and Directed Evolution

Water-in-oil emulsion droplets are an attractive format for ultrahigh-throughput screening in functional metagenomics and directed evolution applications that allow libraries with more than 10⁷ members to be characterized in a day. Single library members are compartmentalized in droplets that are generated in microfluidic devices and tested for the presence of target biocatalysts. The target proteins can be produced intracellularly, for example, in bacterial hosts in-droplet cell lysis is therefore necessary to allow the enzymes to encounter the substrate to initiate an activity assay. Here, we present a titratable lysis-on-demand (LoD) system enabling the control of the cell lysis rate in Escherichia coli. We demonstrate that the rate of cell lysis can be controlled by adjusting the externally added inducer concentration. This LoD system is evaluated both at the population level (by optical density measurements) and at the single-cell level (on single-cell arrays and in alginate microbeads). Additionally, we validate the LoD system by droplet screening of a phosphotriesterase expressed from E. coli, with cell lysis triggered by inducer concentrations in the μM range. The LoD system yields sufficient release of the intracellularly produced enzymes to bring about a detectable quantity of product (measured by fluorescence in flow cytometry of double emulsions), while leaving viable cells for the downstream recovery of the genetic material.

(R)evolution-on-a-chip

Billions of years of Darwinian evolution has led to the emergence of highly sophisticated and diverse life forms on Earth. Inspired by natural evolution, similar principles have been adopted in laboratory evolution for the fast optimization of genes and proteins for specific applications. In this review, we highlight state-of-the-art laboratory evolution strategies for protein engineering, with a special emphasis on in vitro strategies. We further describe how recent progress in microfluidic technology has allowed the generation and manipulation of artificial compartments for high-throughput laboratory evolution experiments. Expectations for the future are high: we foresee a revolution on-a-chip.

"NAD-display": Ultrahigh-Throughput in Vitro Screening of NAD(H) Dehydrogenases Using Bead Display and Flow Cytometry

NAD(H)‐utiliing enzymes have been the subject of directed evolution campaigns to improve their function. To enable access to a larger swath of sequence space, we demonstrate the utility of a cell‐free, ultrahigh‐throughput directed evolution platform for dehydrogenases. Microbeads (1.5 million per sample) carrying both variant DNA and an immobilised analogue of NAD⁺ were compartmentalised in water‐in‐oil emulsion droplets, together with cell‐free expression mixture and enzyme substrate, resulting in the recording of the phenotype on each bead. The beads’ phenotype could be read out and sorted for on a flow cytometer by using a highly sensitive fluorescent protein‐based sensor of the NAD⁺:NADH ratio. Integration of this “NAD‐display” approach with our previously described Split & Mix (SpliMLiB) method for generating large site‐saturation libraries allowed straightforward screening of fully balanced site saturation libraries of formate dehydrogenase, with diversities of 2×10⁴. Based on modular design principles of synthetic biology NAD‐display offers access to sophisticated in vitro selections, avoiding complex technology platforms.

Cell-free Directed Evolution of a Protease in Microdroplets at Ultrahigh Throughput

Compartmentalization of single genes in water-in-oil emulsion droplets is a powerful approach to create millions of reactors for enzyme library selections. When these droplets are formed at ultrahigh throughput in microfluidic devices, their perfect monodispersity allows quantitative enzyme assays with a high precision readout. However, despite its potential for high quality cell-free screening experiments, previous demonstrations of enrichment have never been successfully followed up by actual enzyme library selections in monodisperse microfluidic droplets. Here we develop a three-step workflow separating three previously incompatible steps that thus far could not be carried out at once: first droplet-compartmentalized DNA is amplified by rolling circle amplification; only after completion of this step are reagents for in vitro protein expression and, finally, substrate added via picoinjection. The segmented workflow is robust enough to allow the first in vitro evolution in droplets, improving the protease Savinase that is toxic to E. coli for higher activity and identifying a 5-fold faster enzyme.

Growth amplification in ultrahigh-throughput microdroplet screening increases sensitivity of clonal enzyme assays and minimizes phenotypic variation

Microfluidic ultrahigh-throughput screening of enzyme activities provides information on libraries with millions of variants in a day. Each individual library member is represented by a recombinant single cell, compartmentalised in an emulsion droplet, in which an activity assay is carried out. Key to the success of this approach is the precision and sensitivity of the assay. Assay quality is most profoundly challenged when initially weak, promiscuous activities are to be enhanced in early rounds of directed evolution or when entirely novel catalysts are to be identified from metagenomic sources. Implementation of measures to widen the dynamic range of clonal assays would increase the chances of finding and generating new biocatalysts. Here, we demonstrate that the assay sensitivity and DNA recovery can be improved by orders of magnitude by growth of initially singly compartmentalised cells in microdroplets. Homogeneous cell growth is achieved by continuous oxygenation and recombinant protein expression is regulated by diffusion of an inducer from the oil phase. Reaction conditions are adjusted by directed droplet coalescence to enable full control of buffer composition and kinetic incubation time, creating level playing field conditions for library selections. The clonal amplification multiplies the product readout because more enzyme is produced per compartment. At the same time, phenotypic variation is reduced by measuring monoclonal populations rather than single cells and recovery efficiency is increased. Consequently, this workflow increases the efficiency of lysate-based microfluidic enzyme assays and will make it easier for protein engineers to identify or evolve new enzymes for applications in synthetic and chemical biology.

Functional and computational identification of a rescue mutation near the active site of an mRNA methyltransferase

RNA-based drugs are an emerging class of therapeutics combining the immense potential of DNA gene-therapy with the absence of genome integration-associated risks. While the synthesis of such molecules is feasible, large scale in vitro production of humanised mRNA remains a biochemical and economical challenge. Human mRNAs possess two post-transcriptional modifications at their 5' end: an inverted methylated guanosine and a unique 2'O-methylation on the ribose of the penultimate nucleotide. One strategy to precisely methylate the 2' oxygen is to use viral mRNA methyltransferases that have evolved to escape the host's cell immunity response following virus infection. However, these enzymes are ill-adapted to industrial processes and suffer from low turnovers. We have investigated the effects of homologous and orthologous active-site mutations on both stability and transferase activity, and identified new functional motifs in the interaction network surrounding the catalytic lysine. Our findings suggest that despite their low catalytic efficiency, the active-sites of viral mRNA methyltransferases have low mutational plasticity, while mutations in a defined third shell around the active site have strong effects on folding, stability and activity in the variant enzymes, mostly via network-mediated effects.

UMI-linked consensus sequencing enables phylogenetic analysis of directed evolution

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.

Ultrahigh throughput screening for enzyme function in droplets

Water-in-oil droplets, made and handled in microfluidic devices, provide a new experimental format, in which ultrahigh throughput experiments can be conducted faster and with minimal reagent consumption. An increasing number of studies have emerged that applied this approach to directed evolution and metagenomic screening of enzyme catalysts. Here, we review the considerations necessary to implement robust workflows, based on choices of device design, detection modes, emulsion formulations and substrates, and scope out which enzyme classes have become amenable to droplet screening.

Accessing unexplored regions of sequence space in directed enzyme evolution via insertion/deletion mutagenesis

Insertions and deletions (InDels) are frequently observed in natural protein evolution, yet their potential remains untapped in laboratory evolution. Here we introduce a transposon-based mutagenesis approach (TRIAD) to generate libraries of random variants with short in-frame InDels, and screen TRIAD libraries to evolve a promiscuous arylesterase activity in a phosphotriesterase. The evolution exhibits features that differ from previous point mutagenesis campaigns: while the average activity of TRIAD variants is more compromised, a larger proportion has successfully adapted for the activity. Different functional profiles emerge: (i) both strong and weak trade-off between activities are observed; (ii) trade-off is more severe (20- to 35-fold increased kcat/KM in arylesterase with 60-400-fold decreases in phosphotriesterase activity) and (iii) improvements are present in kcat rather than just in KM, suggesting adaptive solutions. These distinct features make TRIAD an alternative to widely used point mutagenesis, accessing functional innovations and traversing unexplored fitness landscape regions.

Split & mix assembly of DNA libraries for ultrahigh throughput on-bead screening of functional proteins

Site-saturation libraries reduce protein screening effort in directed evolution campaigns by focusing on a limited number of rationally chosen residues. However, uneven library synthesis efficiency leads to amino acid bias, remedied at high cost by expensive custom synthesis of oligonucleotides, or through use of proprietary library synthesis platforms. To address these shortcomings, we have devised a method where DNA libraries are constructed on the surface of microbeads by ligating dsDNA fragments onto growing, surface-immobilised DNA, in iterative split-and-mix cycles. This method-termed SpliMLiB for Split-and-Mix Library on Beads-was applied towards the directed evolution of an anti-IgE Affibody (ZIgE), generating a 160,000-membered, 4-site, saturation library on the surface of 8 million monoclonal beads. Deep sequencing confirmed excellent library balance (5.1% ± 0.77 per amino acid) and coverage (99.3%). As SpliMLiB beads are monoclonal, they were amenable to direct functional screening in water-in-oil emulsion droplets with cell-free expression. A FACS-based sorting of the library beads allowed recovery of hits improved in Kd over wild-type ZIgE by up to 3.5-fold, while a consensus mutant of the best hits provided a 10-fold improvement. With SpliMLiB, directed evolution workflows are accelerated by integrating high-quality DNA library generation with an ultra-high throughput protein screening platform.

Metabolic enzyme clustering by coiled coils improves the biosynthesis of resveratrol and mevalonate

The clustering of biosynthetic enzymes is used in nature to channel reaction products and increase the yield of compounds produced by multiple reaction steps. The coupling of multiple enzymes has been shown to increase the biosynthetic product yield. Different clustering strategies have particular advantages as the spatial organization of multiple enzymes creates biocatalytic cascades with a higher efficiency of biochemical reaction. However, there are also some drawbacks, such as misfolding and the variable stability of interaction domains, which may differ between particular biosynthetic reactions and the host organism. Here, we compared different protein-based clustering strategies, including direct fusion, fusion mediated by intein, and noncovalent interactions mediated through small coiled-coil dimer-forming domains. The clustering of enzymes through orthogonally designed coiled-coil interaction domains increased the production of resveratrol in Escherichia coli more than the intein-mediated fusion of biosynthetic enzymes. The improvement of resveratrol production correlated with the stability of the coiled-coil dimers. The coiled-coil fusion-based approach also increased mevalonate production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, thus demonstrating the wider applicability of this strategy.

In Vitro Selection of Peptides and Proteins-Advantages of mRNA Display

mRNA display is a robust in vitro selection technique that allows the selection of peptides and proteins with desired functions from libraries of trillions of variants. mRNA display relies upon a covalent linkage between a protein and its encoding mRNA molecule; the power of the technique stems from the stability of this link, and the large degree of control over experimental conditions afforded to the researcher. This article describes the major advantages that make mRNA display the method of choice among comparable in vivo and in vitro methods, including cell-surface display, phage display, and ribosomal display. We also describe innovative techniques that harness mRNA display for directed evolution, protein engineering, and drug discovery.

Quantifying the Performance of Micro-Compartmentalized Directed Evolution Protocols

High-throughput, in vitro approaches for the evolution of enzymes rely on a random micro-encapsulation to link phenotypes to genotypes, followed by screening or selection steps. In order to optimise these approaches, or compare one to another, one needs a measure of their performance at extracting the best variants of a library. Here, we introduce a new metric, the Selection Quality Index (SQI), which can be computed from a simple mock experiment, performed with a known initial fraction of active variants. In contrast to previous approaches, our index integrates the effect of random co-encapsulation, and comes with a straightforward experimental interpretation. We further show how this new metric can be used to extract general protocol efficiency trends or reveal hidden selection mechanisms such as a counterintuitive form of beneficial poisoning in the compartmentalized self-replication protocol.

Advances in ultrahigh-throughput screening for directed enzyme evolution

Enzymes are versatile catalysts and their synthetic potential has been recognized for a long time. In order to exploit their full potential, enzymes often need to be re-engineered or optimized for a given application. (Semi-) rational design has emerged as a powerful means to engineer proteins, but requires detailed knowledge about structure function relationships. In turn, directed evolution methodologies, which consist of iterative rounds of diversity generation and screening, can improve an enzyme's properties with virtually no structural knowledge. Current diversity generation methods grant us access to a vast sequence space (libraries of >1012 enzyme variants) that may hide yet unexplored catalytic activities and selectivity. However, the time investment for conventional agar plate or microtiter plate-based screening assays represents a major bottleneck in directed evolution and limits the improvements that are obtainable in reasonable time. Ultrahigh-throughput screening (uHTS) methods dramatically increase the number of screening events per time, which is crucial to speed up biocatalyst design, and to widen our knowledge about sequence function relationships. In this review, we summarize recent advances in uHTS for directed enzyme evolution. We shed light on the importance of compartmentalization to preserve the essential link between genotype and phenotype and discuss how cells and biomimetic compartments can be applied to serve this function. Finally, we discuss how uHTS can inspire novel functional metagenomics approaches to identify natural biocatalysts for novel chemical transformations.

Sorting by interfacial tension (SIFT): Label-free enzyme sorting using droplet microfluidics

Droplet microfluidics has the ability to greatly increase the throughput of screening and sorting of enzymes by carrying reagents in picoliter droplets flowing in inert oils. It was found with the use of a specific surfactant, the interfacial tension of droplets can be very sensitive to droplet pH. This enables the sorting of droplets of different pH when confined droplets encounter a microfabricated trench. The device can be extended to sort enzymes, as a large number of enzymatic reactions lead to the production of an acidic or basic product and a concurrent change in solution pH. The progress of an enzymatic reaction is tracked from the position of a flowing train of droplets. We demonstrate the sorting of esterase isoenzymes based on their enzymatic activity. This label-free technology, that we dub droplet sorting by interfacial tension (SIFT), requires no active components and would have applications for enzyme sorting in high-throughput applications that include enzyme screening and directed evolution of enzymes.

Accurate high-throughput screening based on digital protein synthesis in a massively parallel femtoliter droplet array

We report a general strategy based on digital counting principle that enables an efficient acquisition of enzyme mutants with desired activities from just a few clones within a day. We prepared a high-density femtoliter droplet array, consisting of 1 million uniform droplets per 1 cm² to carry out high-throughput protein synthesis and screening. Single DNA molecules were randomly distributed into each droplet following a Poisson process to initiate the protein synthesis with coupled cell-free transcription and translation reactions and then recovered by a microcapillary. The protein yield in each droplet was proportional to the number of DNA molecules, meaning that droplets with apparent intensities higher than the Poisson distribution-predicted maximum can be readily identified as the exact hits exhibiting the desired increased activity. We improved the activity of an alkaline phosphatase up to near 20-fold by using less than 10 nl of reagents.

Elucidating the Determinants of Polymerase Specificity by Microfluidic-Based Deep Mutational Scanning

Engineering polymerases to synthesize artificial genetic polymers with unique backbone structures is limited by a general lack of understanding about the structural determinants that govern substrate specificity. Here, we report a high-throughput microfluidic-based approach for mapping sequence-function relationships that combines droplet-based optical polymerase sorting with deep mutational scanning. We applied this strategy to map the finger subdomain of a replicative DNA polymerase isolated from Thermococcus kodakarensis (Kod). The enrichment profile provides an unbiased view of the ability of each mutant to synthesize threose nucleic acid, which was used as a model non-natural genetic polymer. From a single round of sorting, we discovered two cases of positive epistasis and demonstrate the near inversion of substrate specificity from a double mutant variant. This effort indicates that polymerase specificity may be governed by a small number of highly specific residues that can be elucidated by deep mutational scanning without the need for iterative rounds of directed evolution.

High-throughput screening of high lactic acid-producing Bacillus coagulans by droplet microfluidic based flow cytometry with fluorescence activated cell sorting

A high-throughput screening system based on droplet microfluidic sorting was developed and employed for screening of high lactic acid-producing Bacillus coagulans. In this system, water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) droplets, which were ∼12 pL in volume were used as picoliter-reactors for lactic acid fermentation. A fluorescent sensor was developed and used for monitoring pH which indicated the production of lactic acid. After fermentation, fluorescence activated cell sorting was performed with high sensitivity and speed. Using this microfluidic high-throughput screening system, we found a mutant with a yield of 76 g L⁻¹ lactic acid which was 52% higher than its parent strain with a screening throughput exceeding 10⁶ clones per h.

A high-throughput screening system based on droplet microfluidic sorting was developed and employed for screening of high lactic acid-producing Bacillus coagulans.

Archimedes' principle for characterisation of recombinant whole cell biocatalysts

The ability of whole cells to catalyse multistep reactions, often yielding synthetically demanding compounds later used by industrial biotech or pharma, makes them an indispensable tool of synthetic chemistry. The complex reaction network employed by cellular catalysts and the still only moderate predictive power of modelling approaches leaves this tool challenging to engineer. Frequently, large libraries of semi-rationally generated variants are sampled in high-throughput mode in order to then identify improved catalysts. We present a method for space- and time-efficient processing of very large libraries (10⁷) of recombinant cellular catalysts, in which the phenotypic characterisation and the isolation of positive variants for the entire library is done within one minute in a single, highly parallelized operation. Specifically, product formation in nanolitre-sized cultivation vessels is sensed and translated into the formation of catalase as a reporter protein. Exposure to hydrogen peroxide leads to oxygen gas formation and thus to a density shift of the cultivation vessel. Exploiting Archimedes' principle, this density shift and the resulting upward buoyancy force can be used for batch-wise library sampling. We demonstrate the potential of the method for both, screening and selection protocols, and envision a wide applicability of the system for biosensor-based assays.

Ultrahigh-Throughput Screening of Single-Cell Lysates for Directed Evolution and Functional Metagenomics

The success of ultrahigh-throughput screening experiments in directed evolution or functional metagenomics strongly depends on the availability of efficient technologies for the quantitative testing of a large number of variants. With advanced robotics, libraries of up to 10⁵ clones can be screened per day as colonies on agar plates or cell lysates in microwell plates, albeit at high cost of capital, manpower and consumables. These cost considerations and the general need for high-throughput make miniaturization of assay volumes attractive. To provide a general solution to maintain genotype-phenotype linkage, biochemical assays have been compartmentalized into water-in-oil droplets. This chapter presents a microfluidic workflow that translates a frequently used screening procedure consisting of cytoplasmic/periplasmic protein expression and cell lysis to the single cell level in water-in-oil droplet compartments. These droplets are sorted based on reaction progress by fluorescence measurements at the picoliter scale.

Bioinspired approach toward molecular electrets: synthetic proteome for materials

Molecular-level control of charge transfer (CT) is essential for both, organic electronics and solar-energy conversion, as well as for a wide range of biological processes. This article provides an overview of the utility of local electric fields originating from molecular dipoles for directing CT processes. Systems with ordered dipoles, i.e. molecular electrets, are the centerpiece of the discussion. The conceptual evolution from biomimicry to biomimesis, and then to biological inspiration, paves the roads leading from testing the understanding of how natural living systems function to implementing these lessons into optimal paradigms for specific applications. This progression of the evolving structure-function relationships allows for the development of bioinspired electrets composed of non-native aromatic amino acids. A set of such non-native residues that are electron-rich can be viewed as a synthetic proteome for hole-transfer electrets. Detailed considerations of the electronic structure of an individual residue prove of key importance for designating the points for optimal injection of holes (i.e. extraction of electrons) in electret oligomers. This multifaceted bioinspired approach for the design of CT molecular systems provides unexplored paradigms for electronic and energy science and engineering.

Compartmentalized partnered replication for the directed evolution of genetic parts and circuits

Compartmentalized partnered replication (CPR) is an emulsion-based directed evolution method based on a robust and modular phenotype-genotype linkage. In contrast to other in vivo directed evolution approaches, CPR largely mitigates host fitness effects due to a relatively short expression time of the gene of interest. CPR is based on gene circuits in which the selection of a 'partner' function from a library leads to the production of a thermostable polymerase. After library preparation, bacteria produce partner proteins that can potentially lead to enhancement of transcription, translation, gene regulation, and other aspects of cellular metabolism that reinforce thermostable polymerase production. Individual cells are then trapped in water-in-oil emulsion droplets in the presence of primers and dNTPs, followed by the recovery of the partner genes via emulsion PCR. In this step, droplets with cells expressing partner proteins that promote polymerase production will produce higher copy numbers of the improved partner gene. The resulting partner genes can subsequently be recloned for the next round of selection. Here, we present a step-by-step guideline for the procedure by providing examples of (i) selection of T7 RNA polymerases that recognize orthogonal promoters and (ii) selection of tRNA for enhanced amber codon suppression. A single round of CPR should take ∼3-5 d, whereas a whole directed evolution can be performed in 3-10 rounds, depending on selection efficiency.

Engineering 'cell robots' for parallel and highly sensitive screening of biomolecules under in vivo conditions

Cells are capable of rapid replication and performing tasks adaptively and ultra-sensitively and can be considered as cheap "biological-robots". Here we propose to engineer cells for screening biomolecules in parallel and with high sensitivity. Specifically, we place the biomolecule variants (library) on the bacterial phage M13. We then design cells to screen the library based on cell-phage interactions mediated by a specific intracellular signal change caused by the biomolecule of interest. For proof of concept, we used intracellular lysine concentration in E. coli as a signal to successfully screen variants of functional aspartate kinase III (AK-III) under in vivo conditions, a key enzyme in L-lysine biosynthesis which is strictly inhibited by L-lysine. Comparative studies with flow cytometry method failed to distinguish the wild-type from lysine resistance variants of AK-III, confirming a higher sensitivity of the method. It opens up a new and effective way of in vivo high-throughput screening for functional molecules and can be easily implemented at low costs.

Directing evolution: the next revolution in drug discovery?

The strong biological rationale to pursue challenging drug targets such as protein-protein interactions has stimulated the development of novel screening strategies, such as DNA-encoded libraries, to allow broader areas of chemical space to be searched. There has also been renewed interest in screening natural products, which are the result of evolutionary selection for a function, such as interference with a key signalling pathway of a competing organism. However, recent advances in several areas, such as understanding of the biosynthetic pathways for natural products, synthetic biology and the development of biosensors to detect target molecules, are now providing new opportunities to directly harness evolutionary pressure to identify and optimize compounds with desired bioactivities. Here, we describe innovations in the key components of such strategies and highlight pioneering examples that indicate the potential of the directed-evolution concept. We also discuss the scientific gaps and challenges that remain to be addressed to realize this potential more broadly in drug discovery.

Ultrahigh-Throughput Improvement and Discovery of Enzymes Using Droplet-Based Microfluidic Screening

Enzymes are extremely valuable tools for industrial, environmental, and biotechnological applications and there is a constant need for improving existing biological catalysts and for discovering new ones. Screening microbe or gene libraries is an efficient way of identifying new enzymes. In this view, droplet-based microfluidics appears to be one of the most powerful approaches as it allows inexpensive screenings in well-controlled conditions and an ultrahigh-throughput regime. This review aims to introduce the main microfluidic devices and concepts to be considered for such screening before presenting and discussing the latest successful applications of the technology for enzyme discovery.

Are in vivo selections on the path to extinction?

Droplet microfluidics will become a disruptive technology in the field of library screening and replace biological selections if the central dogma of biology and other processes are successfully implemented within microdroplets.

Quantitative Affinity Determination by Fluorescence Anisotropy Measurements of Individual Nanoliter Droplets

Fluorescence anisotropy measurements of reagents compartmentalized into individual nanoliter droplets are shown to yield high-resolution binding curves from which precise dissociation constants (K_d) for protein-peptide interactions can be inferred. With the current platform, four titrations can be obtained per minute (based on ∼100 data points each), with stoichiometries spanning more than 2 orders of magnitude and requiring only tens of microliters of reagents. In addition to affinity measurements with purified components, K_d values for unpurified proteins in crude cell lysates can be obtained without prior knowledge of the concentration of the expressed protein, so that protein purification can be avoided. Finally, we show how a competition assay can be set up to perform focused library screens, so that compound labeling is not required anymore. These data demonstrate the utility of droplet compartments for the quantitative characterization of biomolecular interactions and establish fluorescence anisotropy imaging as a quantitative technique in a miniaturized droplet format, which is shown to be as reliable as its macroscopic test tube equivalent.

Synthetic Protein Switches: Theoretical and Experimental Considerations

Synthetic protein switches with tailored response functions are finding increasing applications as tools in basic research and biotechnology. With a number of successful design strategies emerging, the construction of synthetic protein switches still frequently necessitates an integrated approach that combines detailed biochemical and biophysical characterization in combination with high-throughput screening to construct tailored synthetic protein switches. This is increasingly complemented by computational strategies that aim to reduce the need for costly empirical optimization and thus facilitate the protein design process. Successful computational design approaches range from analyzing phylogenetic data to infer useful structural, biophysical, and biochemical information to modeling the structure and function of proteins ab initio. The following chapter provides an overview over the theoretical considerations and experimental approaches that have been successful applied in the construction of synthetic protein switches.

Ultrahigh-throughput-directed enzyme evolution by absorbance-activated droplet sorting (AADS)

Ultrahigh-throughput screening, in which members of enzyme libraries compartmentalized in water-in-oil emulsion droplets are assayed, has emerged as a powerful format for directed evolution and functional metagenomics but is currently limited to fluorescence readouts. Here we describe a highly efficient microfluidic absorbance-activated droplet sorter (AADS) that extends the range of assays amenable to this approach. Using this module, microdroplets can be sorted based on absorbance readout at rates of up to 300 droplets per second (i.e., >1 million droplets per hour). To validate this device, we implemented a miniaturized coupled assay for NAD⁺-dependent amino acid dehydrogenases. The detection limit (10 μM in a coupled assay producing a formazan dye) enables accurate kinetic readouts sensitive enough to detect a minimum of 1,300 turnovers per enzyme molecule, expressed in a single cell, and released by lysis within a droplet. Sorting experiments showed that the AADS successfully enriched active variants up to 2,800-fold from an overwhelming majority of inactive ones at ∼100 Hz. To demonstrate the utility of this module for protein engineering, two rounds of directed evolution were performed to improve the activity of phenylalanine dehydrogenase toward its native substrate. Fourteen hits showed increased activity (improved >4.5-fold in lysate; k_cat increased >2.7-fold), soluble protein expression levels (up 60%), and thermostability (T_m, 12 °C higher). The AADS module makes the most widely used optical detection format amenable to screens of unprecedented size, paving the way for the implementation of chromogenic assays in droplet microfluidics workflows.

Ultrahigh-throughput discovery of promiscuous enzymes by picodroplet functional metagenomics

Unculturable bacterial communities provide a rich source of biocatalysts, but their experimental discovery by functional metagenomics is difficult, because the odds are stacked against the experimentor. Here we demonstrate functional screening of a million-membered metagenomic library in microfluidic picolitre droplet compartments. Using bait substrates, new hydrolases for sulfate monoesters and phosphotriesters were identified, mostly based on promiscuous activities presumed not to be under selection pressure. Spanning three protein superfamilies, these break new ground in sequence space: promiscuity now connects enzymes with only distantly related sequences. Most hits could not have been predicted by sequence analysis, because the desired activities have never been ascribed to similar sequences, showing how this approach complements bioinformatic harvesting of metagenomic sequencing data. Functional screening of a library of unprecedented size with excellent assay sensitivity has been instrumental in identifying rare genes constituting catalytically versatile hubs in sequence space as potential starting points for the acquisition of new functions.