Journal
NATURE
Volume 570, Issue 7760, Pages 219-+Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1262-8
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/M027023/1]
- European Research Council (ERC) [757991]
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
- Faculty of Science and Engineering (University of Manchester)
- European Research Council (ERC) [757991] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
- BBSRC [BB/M027023/1, BB/M017702/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- EPSRC [EP/S01778X/1] Funding Source: UKRI
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The combination of computational design and laboratory evolution is a powerful and potentially versatile strategy for the development of enzymes with new functions(1-4). However, the limited functionality presented by the genetic code restricts the range of catalytic mechanisms that are accessible in designed active sites. Inspired by mechanistic strategies from small-molecule organocatalysis(5), here we report the generation of a hydrolytic enzyme that uses Nd-methylhistidine as a non-canonical catalytic nucleophile. Histidine methylation is essential for catalytic function because it prevents the formation of unreactive acyl-enzyme intermediates, which has been a long-standing challenge when using canonical nucleophiles in enzyme design(6-10). Enzyme performance was optimized using directed evolution protocols adapted to an expanded genetic code, affording a biocatalyst capable of accelerating ester hydrolysis with greater than 9,000-fold increased efficiency over free Nd-methylhistidine in solution. Crystallographic snapshots along the evolutionary trajectory highlight the catalytic devices that are responsible for this increase in efficiency. N-delta-methylhistidine can be considered to be a genetically encodable surrogate of the widely employed nucleophilic catalyst dimethylaminopyridine(11), and its use will create opportunities to design and engineer enzymes for a wealth of valuable chemical transformations.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available