title: Improving and repurposing biocatalysts via directed evolution.
abstract: Over the last two decades, directed evolution has become a staple in protein engineering and ushered in a new era of industrial biocatalysis. Directed evolution has provided the tools to not only improve the activity of known biocatalysts, but also to endow biocatalysts with chemical reactivities not previously encountered in nature. Here we will discuss the recent successes in the quest to enhance thermostability, stereoselectivity and activity of biocatalysts, as well as to create novel enzymes, over the last two years.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States.
authors.forename: Carl A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Denard
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States.
authors.forename: Hengqian
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States; Department of Chemistry, Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States; Department of Biochemistry, Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States; Department of Bioengineering, Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States. Electronic address: zhao5@illinois.edu.
authors.forename: Huimin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D055162:Biocatalysis; D019020:Directed Molecular Evolution / Q000379:methods*; D004798:Enzymes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015202:Protein Engineering
chemical_list: D004798:Enzymes