Behind the Scenes of PluriZyme Designs

Abstract

Protein engineering is the design and modification of protein structures to optimize their functions or create novel functionalities for applications in biotechnology, medicine or industry. It represents an essential scientific solution for many of the environmental and societal challenges ahead of us, such as polymer degradation. Unlike traditional chemical methods, enzyme-mediated degradation is selective and environmentally friendly and requires milder conditions. Computational methods will play a critical role in developing such solutions by enabling more efficient bioprospecting of natural polymer-degrading enzymes. They provide structural information, generate mechanistic studies, and formulate new hypotheses, facilitating the modeling and modification of these biocatalysts through enzyme engineering. The recent development of pluriZymes constitutes an example, providing a rational mechanism to integrate different biochemical processes into one single enzyme. In this review, we summarize our recent efforts in this line and introduce our early work towards polymer degradation using a pluriZyme-like technology, including our latest development in PET nanoparticle degradation. Moreover, we provide a comprehensive recipe for developing one’s own pluriZyme so that different laboratories can experiment with them and establish new limits. With modest computational resources and with help from this review, your first pluriZyme is one step closer.