Adjustable Multi-Enzyme to Cell Surface Anchoring Protein

There are a plethora of enzymes that occur in the natural world which perform reactions that could be immensely useful to humans. Unfortunately, the efficiency of some of these reactions may render their applications logistically unrealistic. The cellulosome scaffolding protein produced by Clostridium thermocellum has been shown to significantly increase the efficiency of cellulose degradation. The scaffolding protein can be reduced in size and adapted for the cell surface of Escherichia coli. Different cohesion sites on the new cell surface display protein can also be introduced to allow for attachment of desired enzymes. Future applications would include producing a collection of distinct versions of the scaffolding protein for unique arrangements and concentrations of enzymes, enabling construction of an extra-cellular assembly line for a variety of multi-enzymatic reactions. This would lay the foundation for making previously infeasible applications of reactions possible through increased efficiency.

22. Adams JJ, Currie MA, Ali S, Bayer EA, Jia Z, and Smith SP. Insights into higher-order organization of the cellulosome revealed by a dissect-and-build approach: crystal structure of interacting Clostridium thermocellum multimodular components. J Mol Biol 2010 Mar 5; 396(4) 833-9. doi:10.1016/j.jmb.2010.01.015 pmid:20070943. PubMed HubMed [cellulosome7]