Natural evolution has produced a great diversity of proteins that can be harnessed for numerous applications in biotechnology and pharmaceutical science. Commonly, specific applications require proteins to be tailored by protein engineering. Directed evolution is a type of protein engineering that yields proteins with the desired properties under well-defined conditions and in a practical time frame. While directed evolution has been employed for decades, recent creative developments enable the generation of proteins with previously inaccessible properties. Novel selection strategies, faster techniques, the inclusion of unnatural amino acids or modifications, and the symbiosis of rational design approaches and directed evolution continue to advance protein engineering.
Bibliographical noteFunding Information:
We thank RJ Kazlauskas, JC Haugner, A Morelli, S Dremel and DJ Morrone for critical reading of the manuscript. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Biocatalysis Initiative of the BioTechnology Institute at the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Medical Foundation, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) NNX14AK29G and Agreement NNX09AH70A through the NASA Astrobiology Institute – Ames Research Center, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) ( GM108703 ; MSTP grant T32 GM008244 to MDL), and the American Heart Association (MDL).
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd.