Journal:Molecular Cell:1

Automated computational design of human enzymes for high bacterial expression and stability

Adi Goldenzweig, Moshe Goldsmith, Shannon E Hill, Or Gertman, Paola Laurino, Yacov Ashani, Orly Dym, Tamar Unger, Shira Albeck, Jaime Prilusky, Raquel L Lieberman, Amir Aharoni, Israel Silman, Joel L Sussman, Dan S Tawfik and Sarel J Fleishman ^[1]

Molecular Tour
Upon heterologous overexpression, many proteins misfold or aggregate, thus resulting in low functional yields. Human acetylcholinesterase (hAChE), an enzyme mediating synaptic transmission, is a typical case of a human protein that necessitates mammalian systems to obtain functional expression. Using a novel computational strategy, we designed an AChE variant bearing 51 mutations that improved core packing, surface polarity, and backbone rigidity. This variant expressed at ~2,000-fold higher levels in E. coli compared to wild-type hAChE, and exhibited 20°C higher thermostability with no change in enzymatic properties or in the active-site configuration as determined by crystallography. To demonstrate broad utility, we similarly designed four other human and bacterial proteins. Testing at most three designs per protein, we obtained enhanced stability and/or higher yields of soluble protein in E. coli. Our algorithm requires only a 3D structure and several dozen sequences of naturally occurring homologues, and is available at http://pross.weizmann.ac.il.

. Wild type hAChE is shown in cyan and 51 mutated positions, which are distributed throughout dAChE4, are indicated by orange spheres.

The choice of mutations at Gly416 in hAChE illustrates the role of these two filters (alignment scan and computational mutation scanning) in pruning false positives (see static image below). Position 416 is located on a partially exposed helical surface, where the small and flexible amino acid Gly is likely to destabilize hAChE. Indeed, in the alignment of 5 AChE homologues, Gly is infrequent and His is the most prevalent amino acid. Modeling shows, however, that in the specific context of hAChE, His adopts a strained side-chain conformation; in contrast, Gln, the third most prevalent amino acid, is predicted to be most stabilizing owing to its high helical propensity and favorable hydrogen-bonding with Tyr503. The combined filter therefore favors Gln over His for downstream design calculations.

Scenes highlight stabilizing effects of (in red):

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wild type hAChE is shown in cyan and mutant hAChE is in green.

in the crystallographic structure of dAChE4 (PDB entry: 5hq3, yellow) compared to hAChE (PDB entry: 4ey4, green).

Comparison of the dAChE4 design model (yellow) and the solved crystal structure (PDB entry: 5hq3, green).