Manfred T. Reetz
Philipps-University Germany
Title: Increasing the Efficiency of Directed Evolution of Enzymes
Biography
Biography: Manfred T. Reetz
Abstract
Since its conception some time ago (M.T. Reetz, et al, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1997, 36, 2830-2832), the idea of directed evolution of stereoselective enzymes as a new approach to asymmetric catalysis has been generalized by us and other research groups to include essentially all of the known enzyme types, including hydrolases, reductases, oxygenases, transferases, and C-C bond forming enzymes such as aldolases, oxynitrilases and pyruvate decarboxylases. Since the screening step is the bottleneck of this type of Darwinian laboratory evolution, the real challenge is to obtain mutant libraries of highest quality requiring a minimum of screening effort. In this endeavor we have proposed iterative saturation mutagenesis (ISM), which has proven to be an extremely valuable tool. The lecture will focus on the newest methodology developments. Review of ISM: C. G Acevedo-Rocha, S. Kille, M. T. Reetz, Methods in Molecular Biology, Vol. 1179, pp. 103-128, Humana Press, 2014; Perspective article of enzymes as catalysts in organic and pharmaceutical chemistry: M. T. Reetz, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 12480-12496.
