Protein engineering of aldolase LbDERA for enhanced activity toward real substrates with a high-throughput screening method coupled with an aldehyde dehydrogenase

A new high-throughput method for screening 2-deoxyribose-5-phosphate aldolase variants with a higher activity toward aldol reaction of unnatural aldehydes was established for the first time by coupling with an aldehyde dehydrogenase LeADH. The error-prone PCR and site-directed saturation mutagenesis libraries of aldolase LbDERA were constructed and screened using the high-throughput method. Two improved variants, LbDERAT29L and LbDERAF163Y, were identified and combined, giving a double mutant LbDERAT29L/F163Y which showed 7-fold higher activity than the native enzyme. The crystal structure of LbDERAT29L/163Y obtained by X-ray diffraction with 1.77 Å resolution revealed the structural changes responsible for the significant activity improvement.