Combinatorial Biochemistry Research Articles

Acoustofluidic control of chemical concentration within picoliter droplets in a disposable microfluidic chip

We propose an acoustofluidic method to dynamically control the chemical concentration (CC) within picoliter-scale droplets at high-throughput production exceeding 2000 drops per second. Co-flowing laminar streams of two fluids were rapidly mixed via acoustic streaming flow-induced micro-vortices, and the mixing index was precisely controlled by modulating the wave amplitude. The mixed aqueous sample was fed into a T-junction as a dispersed phase with a continuous phase oil to produce droplets. We conducted numerical and experimental analysis on the flow mixing in terms of the flow rate and wave amplitude. We produced the droplets with tunable CCs with higher than 100-fold enhancement and the droplet libraries with varying inter-droplet chemical concentration (CCD) gradients. The temporal stability and dynamic controllability of the CCD were also verified by the experiments. We demonstrated the applicability of the proposed method by generating doxorubicin-loaded droplets with tunable CCs. The proposed device includes a disposable microfluidic chip to enable the reusable transducer on the piezoelectric substrate, leading to improved flexibility and functionality. We expect that the proposed method to produce droplet libraries with desired CCs is promising for various droplet microfluidic applications including high-through drug screening and discovery, combinatorial biochemistry, and synthesis of functionalized hydrogels.

Phytocannabinoids: Origins and Biosynthesis.

Phytocannabinoids are bioactive natural products found in some flowering plants, liverworts, and fungi that can be beneficial for the treatment of human ailments such as pain, anxiety, and cachexia. Targeted biosynthesis of cannabinoids with desirable properties requires identification of the underlying genes and their expression in a suitable heterologous host. We provide an overview of the structural classification of phytocannabinoids based on their decorated resorcinol core and the bioactivities of naturally occurring cannabinoids, and we review current knowledge of phytocannabinoid biosynthesis in Cannabis, Rhododendron, and Radula species. We also highlight the potential in planta roles of phytocannabinoids and the opportunity for synthetic biology approaches based on combinatorial biochemistry and protein engineering to produce cannabinoid derivatives with improved properties.

Structure-based engineering of designed armadillo repeat proteins.

The specific recognition of macromolecules is key for many applications in biochemical research, medical diagnostics and disease treatment. Currently the development of new recognition molecules depends on the immunization of lab animals or combinatorial biochemistry techniques. Since both approaches are elaborate and require the availability of sufficient amounts of stable target molecules we are developing a modular system that allows a rational design of peptide recognition modules. This system is based on the armadillo repeat scaffold, because natural armadillo repeat proteins bind their targets in extended anti-parallel conformations with very regular binding topologies. The development of designed armadillo repeat proteins (dArmRPs) consisting entirely of identical internal repeats (full-consensus design) has been described [1]. Although dArmRP with 2nd generation capping repeats were predominantly monomeric in solution, crystal structures of dArmRP with different numbers of internal repeats revealed domain-swapped N-caps [2]. Redesign of the N-cap significantly improved thermodynamic stability and abrogated swapping of N-caps. These 3rd generation dArmRP recognize full-consensus peptides with nanomolar affinities. The dissociation constants depend on the lengths of the targeted peptides and the number of internal repeats. Three crystal structures of complexes between dArmRPs with five or six internal repeats and the targeted full-consensus (KR)5 peptide (either free or fused to the N- and C-terminii of globular proteins) confirm that the binding mode fulfills the expected regular topology. Further crystal structures of complexes between dArmRPs and the mismatch (RR)5 peptide revealed that the dArmRPs recognize their target peptides in a side-chain specific manner. Several crystal structures confirm that 3rd generation dArmRPs behave as stable and monomeric molecules that allow the selective recognition of the targeted peptide with the expected topology. Therefore, the rational assembly of binding modules from a pool of dipeptide-specific armadillo repeats to recognize peptides with given sequences should indeed be possible.

Natural products – learning chemistry from plants

Plant natural products (PNPs) are unique in that they represent a vast array of different structural features, ranging from relatively simple molecules to very complex ones. Given the fact that many plant secondary metabolites exhibit profound biological activity, they are frequently used as fragrances and flavors, medicines, as well as industrial chemicals. As the intricate structures of PNPs often cannot be mimicked by chemical synthesis, the original plant providers constitute the sole source for their industrial, large-scale production. However, sufficient supply is not guaranteed for all molecules of interest, making the development of alternative production systems a priority. Modern techniques, such as genome mining and thorough biochemical analysis, have helped us gain preliminary understanding of the enzymatic formation of the valuable ingredients in planta. Herein, we review recent advances in the application of biocatalytical processes, facilitating generation of complex PNPs through utilization of plant-derived specific enzymes and combinatorial biochemistry. We further evaluate the options of employing heterologous organisms harboring PNP biosynthetic pathways for the production of secondary metabolites of interest.

Proximity Effects on the Protein Domain Level: Engineering Prolyl Isomerases through Combinatorial Biochemistry

Proximity Effects on the Protein Domain Level: Engineering Prolyl Isomerases through Combinatorial Biochemistry

ChemInform Abstract: Combinatorial Biosynthesis in Plants: A (P)review on Its Potential and Future Exploitation

AbstractReview: 298 refs.

A NEW LOOK AT MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS

Herbs, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs) have maintained their traditional basic curative role while new trends seek natural alternatives with lesser side effects to using conventional drugs. Besides their traditional culinary and food industry uses, MAPs are intensively consumed as food supplements (food additives). In animal husbandry, feed-additives are used to replace synthetic chemicals and production increasing hormones. Nearly unlimited and increasing huge demand have led to the overexploitation of natural resources, thus endangering not only plant species but incomes, even livelihoods, especially in developing countries. A New Look, a different holistic focus and R+D action is needed to sustain an energetic and socio-economically sound MAPs sector. Guided by international standards (e.g., ISSC-MAP, GA(C)P, FairWild), the sustainable exploitation and management of MAP natural resources have become an imperative from both environment protection and socio-economic points of view. The raw material supplies should be secured by conserving and improving the germplasm of cultivated species, and using both in situ and/or ex-situ technologies. There is a strong demand on the domestication/introduction into cultivation of presently wildcrafted species. Sophisticated in vitro propagation and breeding (selection) technologies aided by advanced phytochemical and molecular biological analytical techniques can further assist this progress. There is also a need to ensure the quality of medicinal plant products by using modern control techniques and applying suitable standards. Based on the already available modern sample preparation techniques (e.g., SPME, SFE, PLE, MAE and SME), the study of the plant metabolome has already yielded successes. Advances in plant genomics and metabolite profiling, also seem to offer unprecedented possibilities in exploring the extraordinary complexity of plant biochemical capacity. State-of-the-art genomics tools can be used to enhance the production of known target metabolites and/or to synthesize entire novel compounds in cultivated plant cells by the so-called combinatorial biochemistry. Ultimate goal of these efforts should be to help improve the traceability and safety (reliability) of natural products, as well as the appropriate policies and legal frameworks to guide the protection, production (including organic production), trade, and applications of medicinal and aromatic plant materials.

Combinatorial biosynthesis in plants: A (p)review on its potential and future exploitation

Combinatorial biochemistry, also called combinatorial biosynthesis, comprises a series of methods that establish novel enzyme-substrate combinations in vivo and, in turn, lead to the biosynthesis of new, natural product-derived compounds that can be used in drug discovery programs. Plants are an extremely rich source of bioactive natural products and continue to possess a huge potential for drug discovery. In this review, we discuss the state-of-the-art in combinatorial biosynthesis methods to generate novel molecules from plants. We debate on the progress and potential in biotransformation, mutasynthesis, combinatorial metabolism in hybrids, activation of silent plant metabolism and synthetic biology in plants to create opportunities for the combinatorial biosynthesis of plant-derived natural products, and, ultimately, for drug discovery. The therapeutic value of two classes of natural products, the terpenoid indole alkaloids and the triterpene saponins, is particularly highlighted.

Glycoalkaloid Profile in Potato Haploids Derived from Solanum tuberosum–S. bulbocastanum Somatic Hybrids

Cultivated and wild potato species synthesize a wide variety of steroidal glycoalkaloids (GA) that may affect either human health or biotic stress resistance. Therefore, GA composition must be a major criterion in the evaluation of breeding products when species genomes are merged and/or manipulated. This work reports the results of GA analysis performed on unique haploid (2n=2x=24) plants obtained from tetraploid (2n=4x=48) Solanum bulbocastanum-S. tuberosum hybrids through in vitro anther culture. Glycoalkaloids were extracted from tubers and analyzed by HPLC. Haploids generally showed the occurrence of parental GA. However, in several cases loss of parental GA and gain of new GA lacking in the parents was observed. It may be hypothesized that new GA profiles of our haploids is the result of either genetic recombination or combinatorial biochemistry events. To highlight differences between haploids and parents, soluble proteins and antioxidant activities were also determined. Both were always higher in haploids compared to their parents. The nature of the newly formed GAs will be further investigated, because they may represent new metabolites that can be used against pest and diseases, or are useful for human health.

Hydroxyl-Rich β-Sheet Adhesion to the Gold Surface in Water by First-Principle Simulations

Proteins able to recognize inorganic surfaces are of paramount importance for living organisms. Mimicking nature, surface-recognizing proteins and peptides have also been man-made by combinatorial biochemistry. However, to date the recognition mechanisms remain elusive, and the underlying physicochemical principles are still unknown. Selectivity of gold-binding peptides (cysteine-free and rich in hydroxyl amino acids) is particularly puzzling, since the most relevant gold surface, Au(111), is known to be chemically inert and atomically flat. Using atomistic first-principle simulations we show that weak chemical interactions of dative-bond character confer to a prototype secondary structure (an antiparallel beta-sheet made of hydroxyl amino acids) and its hydration layer the capability of discriminating among gold surface sites. Our results highlight the unexpected role of hydration water in this process, suggesting that hydrophilic amino acids and their hydration shell cooperate to contribute to protein-gold surface recognition.

Production of penicillin G amidase from Alcaligenes faecalis in a recombinant Escherichia coli

Penicillin G amidase (PGA) from Alcaligenes faecalis, which has useful properties for combinatorial biochemistry, is produced by a recombinant Escherichia coli using a constitutive expression system. Cells are cultured on a semi-defined medium in a 5-L fermentor using fed-batch technology. The fermentation yield is about 23,000 U PGA activity/L broth.

Evolution of heteromeric nitrilase complexes in Poaceae with new functions in nitrile metabolism

Members of the nitrilase 4 (NIT4) family of higher plants catalyze the conversion of beta-cyanoalanine to aspartic acid and asparagine, a key step in cyanide detoxification. Grasses (Poaceae) possess two different NIT4 homologs (NIT4A and NIT4B), but none of the recombinant Poaceae enzymes analyzed showed activity with beta-cyanoalanine, whereas protein extracts of the same plants clearly posses this activity. Sorghum bicolor contains three NIT4 isoforms SbNIT4A, SbNIT4B1, and SbNIT4B2. Individually, each isoform does not possess enzymatic activity whereas the heteromeric complexes SbNIT4A/B1 and SbNIT4A/B2 hydrolyze beta-cyanoalanine with high activity. In addition, the SbNIT4A/B2 complex accepts additional substrates, the best being 4-hydroxyphenylacetonitrile. Corresponding NIT4A and NIT4B isoforms from other Poaceae species can functionally complement the sorghum isoforms in these complexes. Site-specific mutagenesis of the active site cysteine residue demonstrates that hydrolysis of beta-cyanoalanine is catalyzed by the NIT4A isoform in both complexes whereas hydrolysis of 4-hydroxyphenylacetonitrile occurs at the NIT4B2 isoform. 4-Hydroxyphenylacetonitrile was shown to be an in vitro breakdown product of the cyanogenic glycoside dhurrin, a main constituent in S. bicolor. The results indicate that the SbNIT4A/B2 heterocomplex plays a key role in an endogenous turnover of dhurrin proceeding via 4-hydroxyphenylacetonitrile and thereby avoiding release of toxic hydrogen cyanide. The operation of this pathway would enable plants to use cyanogenic glycosides as transportable and remobilizable nitrogenous storage compounds. Through combinatorial biochemistry and neofunctionalizations, the small family of nitrilases has gained diverse biological functions in nitrile metabolism.

Fine affinity discrimination by normalized fluorescence activated cell sorting in staphylococcal surface display

We have investigated a staphylococcal surface display system for its potential future use as a protein library display system in combinatorial biochemistry. Efficient affinity-based selections require a system capable of fine affinity discrimination of closely related binders to minimize the loss of potentially improved variants. In this study, a significant breakthrough was achieved to avoid biases due to potential cell-to-cell variations in surface expression levels, since it was found that a generic protein tag, present within the displayed recombinant surface proteins on the cells, could be successfully employed to obtain normalization of the target-binding signal. Four mutated variants of a staphylococcal protein A domain with different affinity to human IgG were successfully expressed on the surface of recombinant Staphylococcus carnosus cells. The system was evaluated for affinity-based cell sorting experiments, where cell-displayed protein A domains with an 8-fold difference in target affinity were mixed at a ratio of 1:1000 and sorted using FACS. Enrichment factors around 140-fold were obtained from a single round of sorting under normal library sorting conditions when the top 0.1% fraction having the highest antigen binding to surface expression level ratio was sorted. The results demonstrate that the system would have a potential as a selection system in protein library display applications, and the normalization strategy should indeed make it possible to achieve fine affinity discriminations in future library selections.

Bioreactor cultivation of Escherichia coli for production of recombinant penicillin G amidase from Alcaligenes faecalis.

The penicillin G amidase (PGA) from Alcaligenes faecalis, which has interesting properties for use in combinatorial biochemistry, was produced by recombinant expression in Escherichia coli. The corresponding gene was cloned into a multicopy vector under the strict regulatory control of the rhamnose inducible promoter. Cells were grown in a synthetic minimal medium in a bioreactor (5 l working vol.), and production of PGA was induced by repeated addition of the inducer rhamnose, that served also as a carbon source. The fermentation yield was about 4500 units PGA activity per liter of culture medium.

Concepts in antibody phage display.

This paper introduces the reader to antibody phage display and its use in combinatorial biochemistry. The focus is on overviewing phage display formats, library design and selection technology, which are the prerequisites for the successful isolation of specific antibody fragments against a diverse set of target antigens.

Molecular biology of peptide and polyketide biosynthesis in cyanobacteria.

Cyanobacteria produce numerous and structurally diverse secondary metabolites, in particular nonribosomal peptide and polyketide structures. Various bioactivities could be assigned to these compounds, and some may prove useful either for development into commercial drugs or as biochemical research tools. Microcystin, a worldwide common cyanobacterial hepatotoxin, was the first metabolite whose nonribosomal biosynthesis could be confirmed by knock-out mutagenesis. The microcystin synthetase complex consists of peptide synthetases, polyketide synthases, and hybrid enzymes, and reveals a number of novel enzymatic features, signifying the potential of cyanobacterial biosynthetic systems for combinatorial biochemistry. Recent studies have shown the presence of peptide synthetase genes and polyketide synthase genes within a number of cyanobacterial genomes. This knowledge may be very valuable for future screening projects aimed at the detection of new bioactive compounds.

Combinatorial biochemistry in plants: the case of O-methyltransferases

Combinatorial chemistry is common place today in chemical synthesis. Virtually thousands of derivatives of a molecule can be achieved by automated systems. The use of biological systems to exploit combinatorial chemistry (combinatorial biochemistry) now has multiple examples in the polyketide field. The modular functional domain structure of polyketide synthases have been recombined through genetic engineering into unnatural constellations in heterologous hosts in order to produce polyketide structures not yet discovered in nature. We present herein an example for a potential type of combinatorial biochemistry in alkaloidal systems using various combinations of Thalictrum tuberosum (meadow rue) O-methyltransferase subunits that result in heterodimeric enzymes with substrate specificities that differ from those of the homodimeric native enzymes.

Chance and necessity in the selection of nucleic acid catalysts.

In Tom Stoppard's famous play [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead], the ill-fated heroes toss a coin 101 times. The first 100 times they do so the coin lands heads up. The chance of this happening is approximately 1 in 10(30), a sequence of events so rare that one might argue that it could only happen in such a delightful fiction. Similarly rare events, however, may underlie the origins of biological catalysis. What is the probability that an RNA, DNA, or protein molecule of a given random sequence will display a particular catalytic activity? The answer to this question determines whether a collection of such sequences, such as might result from prebiotic chemistry on the early earth, is extremely likely or unlikely to contain catalytically active molecules, and hence whether the origin of life itself is a virtually inevitable consequence of chemical laws or merely a bizarre fluke. The fact that a priori estimates of this probability, given by otherwise informed chemists and biologists, ranged from 10(-5) to 10(-50), inspired us to begin to address the question experimentally. As it turns out, the chance that a given random sequence RNA molecule will be able to catalyze an RNA polymerase-like phosphoryl transfer reaction is close to 1 in 10(13), rare enough, to be sure, but nevertheless in a range that is comfortably accessible by experiment. It is the purpose of this Account to describe the recent advances in combinatorial biochemistry that have made it possible for us to explore the abundance and diversity of catalysts existing in nucleic acid sequence space.