Emulsion-based directed evolution of enzymes and proteins in yeast

Abstract

Emulsion-based selections are a unique type of directed evolution method that overcome common bottlenecks associated with purely in vivo selections. For example, emulsions including cell-free translation machinery can be useful for expression of toxic genes. However, not all cell types can efficiently produce protein in vitro, for example, the eukaryotic microbe Saccharomyces cerevisiae. compartmentalized self replication (CSR) and compartmentalized partnered replication (CPR) are two emulsion-based selection schemes that leverage the advantages of both in vivo and in vitro selections by compartmentalizing cells in water-in-oil droplets. Previous implementations of these methods utilized bacterial hosts, which has limited the technology to the directed evolution of proteins that can be heterologously expressed in prokaryotic systems. To expand the repertoire of targets that can be evolved, we have adapted emulsion-based PCR selections to be compatible with a eukaryotic host.