Focused rational iterative site-specific mutagenesis (FRISM)

Directed evolution has emerged as the most productive enzyme engineering method, with stereoselectivity playing a crucial role when evolving mutants for application in synthetic organic chemistry and biotechnology. In order to reduce the screening effort (bottleneck of directed evolution), improved methods for the creation of small and smart mutant libraries have been developed, including the combinatorial active-site saturation test (CAST) which involves saturation mutagenesis at appropriate residues surrounding the binding pocket, and iterative saturation mutagenesis (ISM). Nevertheless, even CAST/ISM mutant libraries require a formidable screening effort. Thus far, rational design as the alternative protein engineering technique has had only limited success when aiming for stereoselectivity. Here, we highlight a recent methodology dubbed focused rational iterative site-specific mutagenesis (FRISM), in which mutant libraries are not involved. It makes use of the tools that were previously employed in traditional rational enzyme design, but, inspired by CAST/ISM, the process is performed in an iterative manner. Only a few predicted mutants need to be screened, a fast process which leads to the identification of highly enantioselective and sufficiently active mutants.