Engineering synthetic auxotrophs for growth-coupled directed protein evolution

Abstract

Selecting desired variants from protein libraries is always a challenge for directed evolution. Engineering synthetic auxotrophs to establish a link between cell growth and protein property allows growth-coupled in vivo selection, which is high throughput and compatible with continuous evolution. In silico simulation-guided metabolic reprogramming will help in the design of customized synthetic auxotrophs.

Keywords: auxotroph; continuous evolution; directed evolution; growth coupling; in silico simulation; protein engineering.