Tao Haiyan, Cornish Virginia W
Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2002 Dec;6(6):858-64. doi: 10.1016/s1367-5931(02)00396-4.
Directed evolution has now been used for over two decades as an alternative to rational design for protein engineering. Protein function, however, is complex, and modifying enzyme activity is a tall order. We can now improve existing enzyme activity, change enzyme selectivity and evolve function de novo using directed evolution. Although directed evolution is now used routinely to improve existing enzyme activity, there are still only a handful of examples where substrate selectivity has been modified sufficiently for practical application, and the de novo evolution of function largely eludes us.
在过去二十多年里，定向进化已被用作蛋白质工程中理性设计的替代方法。然而，蛋白质功能十分复杂，改变酶活性并非易事。如今，我们可以利用定向进化提高现有酶的活性、改变酶的选择性并从头进化出功能。尽管目前定向进化已被常规用于提高现有酶的活性，但在实际应用中，仅有少数几个底物选择性得到充分改变的例子，而功能的从头进化在很大程度上仍难以实现。
