Kaltenbach Miriam, Tokuriki Nobuhiko
Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
J Exp Zool B Mol Dev Evol. 2014 Nov;322(7):468-87. doi: 10.1002/jez.b.22562. Epub 2014 Feb 13.
The wealth of distinct enzymatic functions found in nature is impressive and the on-going evolutionary divergence of enzymatic functions continues to generate new and efficient catalysts, which can be seen through the recent emergence of enzymes able to degrade xenobiotics. However, recreating such processes in the laboratory has been met with only moderate success. What are the factors that lead to suboptimal research outputs? In this review, we discuss constraints on enzyme evolution, which can restrict evolutionary trajectories and lead to evolutionary dead-ends. We highlight recent studies that have used experimental evolution to mimic different aspects of enzymatic adaptation under simple, controlled settings to shed light on evolutionary dynamics and constraints. A better understanding of these constraints will lead to the development of more efficient strategies for directed evolution and enzyme engineering.
自然界中存在的丰富多样的酶功能令人印象深刻，酶功能持续不断的进化分歧继续产生新的高效催化剂，这从最近能够降解外源生物的酶的出现中可见一斑。然而，在实验室中重现此类过程仅取得了一定程度的成功。导致研究成果不理想的因素有哪些？在本综述中，我们讨论了对酶进化的限制，这些限制可能会限制进化轨迹并导致进化的死胡同。我们重点介绍了最近的一些研究，这些研究利用实验进化在简单、可控的环境中模拟酶适应的不同方面，以阐明进化动力学和限制因素。更好地理解这些限制因素将有助于开发更有效的定向进化和酶工程策略。
