title: ReX: A suite of computational tools for the design, visualization, and analysis of chimeric protein libraries.
abstract: Directed evolution has greatly facilitated protein engineering and provided new insights into protein structure-function relationships. DNA shuffling using restriction enzymes is a particularly simple and cost-effective means of recombinatorial evolution that is well within the capability of most molecular biologists, but tools for the design and analysis of such experiments are limited. Here we introduce a suite of freely available online tools to make the construction and analysis of chimeric libraries readily accessible to the novice. REcut (http://qpmf.rx.umaryland.edu/REcut.html) facilitates the choice of DNA fragmentation strategy, while Xover (http://qpmf.rx.umaryland.edu/Xover.html) analyzes chimeric mutants to reveal recombination patterns and extract quantitative data.
authors: School of Pharmacy, The University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD.|School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia.
authors: Weiliang
authors: W
authors: Huang
authors: School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia.
authors: Wayne A
authors: WA
authors: Johnston
authors: School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia.
authors: Mikael
authors: M
authors: Boden
authors: School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia.
authors: Elizabeth M J
authors: EM
authors: Gillam
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D032621:DNA Shuffling / Q000379:methods*; D030562:Databases, Protein; D019020:Directed Molecular Evolution / Q000379:methods*; D020407:Internet; D015202:Protein Engineering / Q000379:methods; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D012984:Software
chemical_list: D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins
keywords: DNA shuffling; PCR; SCHEMA; Staggered Extension Process; artificial evolution; chimera; crossover; directed evolution; mosaic; mutant library; recombination; restriction enzyme