CeBiTec – Colloquium
Monday, December 05, 2022, 17 c.t.
Online meeting with Zoom
Dr. Ulrich Markel
University of California, San Diego
Directed Evolution of Natural and Artificial Metalloenzymes

Directed evolution allows for the rapid and straight-forward engineering of enzymes. However, it requires i) an efficient high-throughput screening (HTS) to cope with the number of generated enzyme variant and ii) a suitable starting point from which to begin the evolution experiment. Using two case studies – decarboxylase OleT and artificial metalloenzymes – this talk will address both challenges:

i) While OleT and other decarboxylases have an enormous potential in the context of a biobased economy, the glaring lack of a suitable HTS currently hampers their application.

ii) Artificial metalloenzymes (ArMs) consist of a synthetic metal cofactor embedded in a protein scaffold. As the protein and the cofactor do not share a common evolutionary history, they are reminiscent of ancestral metalloenzymes. As such, they provide interesting targets to study evolutionary trajectories and provide alternative starting points for directed evolution experiments.

  • M. Wittwer, U. Markel, J. Schiffels, J. Okuda, D. F. Sauer, U. Schwaneberg, Nat. Catal. 2021, 4, 814-827.
  • U. Markel, D. F. Sauer, M. Wittwer, J. Schiffels, H. Cui, M. D. Davari, K. W. Kröckert, S. Herres-Pawlis, J. Okuda, U. Schwaneberg, ACS Catal. 2021, 11, 5079-5087.
  • D. F. Sauer, M. Wittwer, U. Markel, A. Minges, M. Spiertz, J. Schiffels, M. D. Davari, G. Groth, J. Okuda, U. Schwaneberg, Catal. Sci. Technol. 2021, 11, 4491-4499.
  • U. Markel, P. Lanvers, D. F. Sauer, M. Wittwer, G. V. Dhoke, M. D. Davari, J. Schiffels, U. Schwaneberg, Chem. - Eur. J. 2021, 27, 954-958.
  • U. Markel, K. D. Essani, V. Besirlioglu, J. Schiffels, W. R. Streit, U. Schwaneberg, Chem. Soc. Rev. 2020, 49, 233-262.
  • U. Markel, D. F. Sauer, J. Schiffels, J. Okuda, U. Schwaneberg, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 4454-4464.
Host: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Stephan C. Hammer