MutaT7: A Single Chimera for the Targeted, Balanced, Efficient, and Processive Installation of All Possible Transition Mutations .

ACS synthetic biology
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Abstract

Deaminase-T7 RNA polymerase fusion (MutaT7) proteins are a growing class of synthetic biology tools used to diversify target genes during laboratory evolution. To date, MutaT7 chimeras comprise either a deoxyadenosine or deoxycytidine deaminase fused to a T7 RNA polymerase. Their expression drives targeted deoxyadenosine-to-deoxyguanosine or deoxycytidine-to-deoxythymidine mutagenesis, respectively. Here, we repurpose recently engineered substrate-promiscuous general deaminases (GDEs) to establish a substantially simplified system based on a single chimeric enzyme capable of targeting both deoxyadenosine and deoxycytidine. We assess on- and off-target mutagenesis, strand and context preference, and parity of deamination for four different MutaT7 constructs. We identify a single chimera that installs all possible transition mutations more efficiently than preexisting, more cumbersome MutaT7 tools. The optimized MutaT7 chimera reported herein is a next-generation hypermutator capable of mediating efficient and uniform target-gene diversification during directed evolution.

Year of Publication
2024
Journal
ACS synthetic biology
Date Published
08/2024
ISSN
2161-5063
DOI
10.1021/acssynbio.4c00316
PubMed ID
39190860
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