Protein engineering

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Protein engineering (from English engineering here about “construction”, “manipulation”) is a branch of biochemistry and biotechnology that deals with the construction, optimization and production of proteins , including enzymes . There are basically two approaches in protein engineering: rational design of proteins ( protein design ) and directed evolution . At the same time, the vector is usually also adapted in the course of a vector design in which the gene of the desired protein ( transgene ) is located.

Protein engineering takes place e.g. B. in the construction of zinc finger nucleases .

Rational design

In protein design, amino acids or entire sequences are exchanged, removed or inserted through targeted, site-specific mutagenesis of the DNA to change individual properties of the proteins transcribed and translated from them .

Directed evolution

Directed evolution takes place via random mutagenesis or recombination ( DNA shuffling ) and subsequent selection of the mutants or the mutated proteins for the desired properties. This approach requires high throughput screening .

literature