Repurpose of key catalytic reaction and reconstruction of metabolic pathways all depend on in-depth understanding of the relevant proteins in protein engineering, green biomanufacturing and synthetic biology. The rapid development of synthetic biotechnology calls for proteins with excellent performance to fulfill the requirement for engineering enzymes and strains. The key is to prepare large quantities of target proteins with high purity, and study the structure-function relationship quickly and accurately. In the past 10 years, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences has built a protein structure-function study platform, and studied many proteins of industrial significance. Progress has been made on the terpene synthase related to natural plant products synthesis, PET plastic degradation related enzyme, and enzymes involved in biomass conversion and utilization. The structure-function study of these proteins provided theoretical basis for further engineering. Development of protein structure-function research technologies will facilitate the research of synthetic biology and promote biomanufacturing.
Keywords: X-ray crystallography; catalytic mechanism; protein engineering; structural determination; structure and function.