Increasing protein stability by inferring substitution effects from high-throughput experiments.
Norrild, R.K., Johansson, K.E., O'Shea, C., Morth, J.P., Lindorff-Larsen, K., Winther, J.R.(2022) Cell Rep Methods 2: 100333-100333
- PubMed: 36452862 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crmeth.2022.100333
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
7Q3J, 7Q3K - PubMed Abstract: 
We apply a computational model, global multi-mutant analysis (GMMA), to inform on effects of most amino acid substitutions from a randomly mutated gene library. Using a high mutation frequency, the method can determine mutations that increase the stability of even very stable proteins for which conventional selection systems have reached their limit. As a demonstration of this, we screened a mutant library of a highly stable and computationally redesigned model protein using an in vivo genetic sensor for folding and assigned a stability effect to 374 of 912 possible single amino acid substitutions. Combining the top 9 substitutions increased the unfolding energy 47 to 69 kJ/mol in a single engineering step. Crystal structures of stabilized variants showed small perturbations in helices 1 and 2, which rendered them closer in structure to the redesign template. This case study illustrates the capability of the method, which is applicable to any screen for protein function.
- Linderstrøm-Lang Centre for Protein Science, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark.
Organizational Affiliation: 
















