Abstract
4′-Phosphopantetheinyl transferases (PPTases) play an essential role in activating the carrier protein domains of mega-synthases involved in primary and secondary metabolism and have been validated as promising drug targets in multiple pathogens. Monitoring phosphopantetheinylation of the non-ribosomal peptidase synthetase BpsA, which produces blue indigoidine pigment upon activation, is a useful strategy to screen chemical collections for inhibitors of a target PPTase. However, PPTases can exhibit carrier protein specificity and some medically important PPTases do not activate BpsA. Here, we describe how to conduct a directed evolution campaign to evolve the BpsA carrier protein domain for improved recognition by a candidate PPTase, as exemplified for the human Sfp-like PPTase. This method can be applied to other non-cognate PPTases for discovery of new drug candidates or chemical probes, or to enable development of next-generation biosensors that utilize BpsA as a reporter.
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Brown, A.S., Owen, J.G., Ackerley, D.F. (2023). Directed Evolution of the BpsA Carrier Protein Domain for Recognition by Non-cognate 4′-Phosphopantetheinyl Transferases to Enable Inhibitor Screening. In: Burkart, M., Ishikawa, F. (eds) Non-Ribosomal Peptide Biosynthesis and Engineering. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2670. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3214-7_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3214-7_7
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