Adventures on the Routes of Protein Evolution-In Memoriam Dan Salah Tawfik (1955-2021)

Colin Jackson; Agnes Toth-Petroczy; Rachel Kolodny; Florian Hollfelder; Monika Fuxreiter; Shina Caroline Lynn Kamerlin; Nobuhiko Tokuriki

doi:10.1016/j.jmb.2022.167462

Adventures on the Routes of Protein Evolution-In Memoriam Dan Salah Tawfik (1955-2021)

J Mol Biol. 2022 Apr 15;434(7):167462. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2022.167462. Epub 2022 Jan 29.

Authors

Colin Jackson¹, Agnes Toth-Petroczy², Rachel Kolodny³, Florian Hollfelder⁴, Monika Fuxreiter⁵, Shina Caroline Lynn Kamerlin⁶, Nobuhiko Tokuriki⁷

Affiliations

¹ Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. Electronic address: colin.jackson@anu.edu.au.
² Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, 01307 Dresden, Germany; Center for Systems Biology Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany. Electronic address: https://twitter.com/agnestothp.
³ Department of Computer Science, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel. Electronic address: https://twitter.com/rachelkolodny.
⁴ Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, 80 Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1GA, UK. Electronic address: https://twitter.com/hollfelderlab.
⁵ Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova, Via Ugo Bassi 58/B, 35131 Padova, Italy. Electronic address: monika.fuxreiter@unipd.it.
⁶ Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Chemistry - BMC, Uppsala University, BMC Box 576, S-75123 Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: l.kamerlin@gmx.com.
⁷ Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada. Electronic address: tokuriki@msl.ubc.ca.

PMID: 35104498
DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2022.167462

Abstract

Understanding how proteins evolved not only resolves mysteries of the past, but also helps address challenges of the future, particularly those relating to the design and engineering of new protein functions. Here we review the work of Dan S. Tawfik, one of the pioneers of this area, highlighting his seminal contributions in diverse fields such as protein design, high throughput screening, protein stability, fundamental enzyme-catalyzed reactions and promiscuity, that underpin biology and the origins of life. We discuss the influence of his work on how our models of enzyme and protein function have developed and how the main driving forces of molecular evolution were elucidated. The discovery of the rugged routes of evolution has enabled many practical applications, some which are now widely used.

Keywords: catalytic promiscuity; enzymatic catalysis; high-throughput screening; primordial enzymes; protein evolution.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Catalysis
Directed Molecular Evolution
Enzymes*
Evolution, Molecular*
High-Throughput Screening Assays
Proteins*

Substances

Enzymes
Proteins