Enzyme engineering

Enzyme engineering modifies existing enzymes or selects improved variants to change properties such as activity, stability, or substrate specificity for particular tasks.

Directed evolution: A laboratory method that improves biomolecules through repeated rounds of variation and selection. It searches large variant libraries for enzymes with improved properties.
Enzyme: A biological catalyst that accelerates chemical reactions without being consumed overall. Enzymes are the molecules that engineering efforts modify or select.
Industrial enzyme: An enzyme used to carry out or improve a manufacturing or processing step. Engineering helps industrial enzymes withstand process conditions and reduce production costs.
Natural selection: The process by which heritable traits that improve reproductive success become more common in populations. Laboratory selection borrows its logic but uses controlled goals and artificial conditions.
Rational design: The deliberate design of molecules using structural, mechanistic, or computational knowledge. It targets specific enzyme changes based on hypotheses about structure and function.
Protein structure: The three-dimensional arrangement of atoms in a protein, shaped by its amino-acid sequence. Structure helps explain how mutations affect enzyme stability and activity.
Biocatalysis: The use of enzymes or whole cells to catalyze chemical transformations. Engineered enzymes expand the reactions and conditions available to biocatalysis.
Computational protein design: The use of algorithms to design protein sequences and structures for specified functions. It can design new proteins, whereas enzyme engineering often modifies existing catalysts.
Site-directed mutagenesis: A laboratory technique for introducing a chosen genetic change at a specific DNA site. It creates precise enzyme variants for testing individual amino-acid substitutions.
Protein folding: The process by which a protein adopts its functional three-dimensional structure. Engineered sequence changes can improve or disrupt folding and stability.

Linked from 10 pages