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Evolution of protease activation and specificity via alpha-2-macroglobulin-mediated covalent capture

Author

Listed:
  • Philipp Knyphausen

    (University of Cambridge
    Bayer AG)

  • Mariana Rangel Pereira

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Paul Brear

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Marko Hyvönen

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Lutz Jermutus

    (AstraZeneca)

  • Florian Hollfelder

    (University of Cambridge)

Abstract

Tailoring of the activity and specificity of proteases is critical for their utility across industrial, medical and research purposes. However, engineering or evolving protease catalysts is challenging and often labour intensive. Here, we describe a generic method to accelerate this process based on yeast display. We introduce the protease selection system A2Mcap that covalently captures protease catalysts by repurposed alpha-2-macroglobulin (A2Ms). To demonstrate the utility of A2Mcap for protease engineering we exemplify the directed activity and specificity evolution of six serine proteases. This resulted in a variant of Staphylococcus aureus serin-protease-like (Spl) protease SplB, an enzyme used for recombinant protein processing, that no longer requires activation by N-terminal signal peptide removal. SCHEMA-based domain shuffling was used to map the specificity determining regions of Spl proteases, leading to a chimeric scaffold that supports specificity switching via subdomain exchange. The ability of A2Mcap to overcome key challenges en route to tailor-made proteases suggests easier access to such reagents in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Philipp Knyphausen & Mariana Rangel Pereira & Paul Brear & Marko Hyvönen & Lutz Jermutus & Florian Hollfelder, 2023. "Evolution of protease activation and specificity via alpha-2-macroglobulin-mediated covalent capture," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-36099-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36099-7
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Remkes A. Scheele & Laurens H. Lindenburg & Maya Petek & Markus Schober & Kevin N. Dalby & Florian Hollfelder, 2022. "Droplet-based screening of phosphate transfer catalysis reveals how epistasis shapes MAP kinase interactions with substrates," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Steve G. Wong & Andréa Dessen, 2014. "Structure of a bacterial α2-macroglobulin reveals mimicry of eukaryotic innate immunity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-9, December.
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