Romanowicz Karl J, Resnick Carmen, Hinton Samuel R, Plesa Calin
Department of Bioengineering, Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, University of Oregon, 1505 Franklin Boulevard, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.
Sci Adv. 2025 Aug 15;11(33):eadw9178. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adw9178. Epub 2025 Aug 13.
Antimicrobial resistance studies often focus on individual protein variants, neglecting broader protein family dynamics. Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), a key antibiotic target, has been extensively studied using deep mutational scanning, yet resistance mechanisms across this diverse protein family remain poorly understood. Here, we developed a synthetic metagenomics approach using DropSynth, a scalable gene synthesis platform, to construct a phylogenetically diverse library of 1536 DHFR homologs. These sequences, primarily derived from host-associated metagenomes, represent 759 bacterial species, including many clinically relevant pathogens. A multiplexed in vivo assay tested their ability to restore metabolic function and confer trimethoprim resistance in an ∆ strain. Half of the synthetic homologs rescued the phenotype without supplementation, and mutant variants with up to five amino acid substitutions increased rescue rates to 90%, highlighting DHFR's evolutionary resilience. Broad mutational scanning of DHFR homologs and 100,000 mutants revealed key insights into fitness and resistance, offering the most comprehensive analysis of complementation and inhibitor tolerance to date.
抗菌耐药性研究通常聚焦于单个蛋白质变体,而忽略了更广泛的蛋白质家族动态。二氢叶酸还原酶(DHFR)作为一个关键的抗生素靶点,已经通过深度突变扫描进行了广泛研究,然而对于这个多样的蛋白质家族的耐药机制仍知之甚少。在此,我们利用一种可扩展的基因合成平台DropSynth开发了一种合成宏基因组学方法,构建了一个包含1536个DHFR同源物的系统发育多样文库。这些序列主要源自与宿主相关的宏基因组,代表了759种细菌物种,包括许多临床相关病原体。一种多重体内试验测试了它们在Δ菌株中恢复代谢功能并赋予甲氧苄啶耐药性的能力。一半的合成同源物在不添加补充剂的情况下挽救了表型,具有多达五个氨基酸取代的突变变体将挽救率提高到了90%,突出了DHFR的进化弹性。对DHFR同源物和100,000个突变体的广泛突变扫描揭示了关于适应性和耐药性的关键见解,提供了迄今为止对互补作用和抑制剂耐受性最全面的分析。