title: A combinatorial approach to hybrid enzymes independent of DNA homology.
abstract: We present a methodology, termed incremental truncation for the creation of hybrid enzymes (ITCHY), that creates combinatorial fusion libraries between genes in a manner that is independent of DNA homology. We compared the ability of ITCHY and DNA shuffling to create interspecies fusion libraries between fragments of the Escherichia coli and human glycinamide ribonucleotide transformylase genes, which have only 50% identity on the DNA level. Sequencing of several randomly selected positives from each library illustrated that ITCHY identified a more diverse set of active fusion points including those in regions of nonhomology and those with crossover points that diverged from the sequence alignment. Furthermore, some of the hybrids found by ITCHY that were fused at nonhomologous locations had activities that were greater than or equal to the activity of the hybrids found by DNA shuffling.
authors.affiliation: The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Chemistry, 414 Wartik Laboratory, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ostermeier
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Shim
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Benkovic
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D020650:Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D019877:Hydroxymethyl and Formyl Transferases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D007700:Kinetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D051026:Phosphoribosylglycinamide Formyltransferase; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D004247:DNA; D019877:Hydroxymethyl and Formyl Transferases; D051026:Phosphoribosylglycinamide Formyltransferase