Protein Design by Binary Patterning of Polar and Nonpolar Amino Acids

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 262; no. 5140; pp. 1680 - 1685
• Main Authors: Kamtekar, Satwik, Schiffer, Jarad M., Xiong, Huayu, Babik, Jennifer M., Hecht, Michael H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Society for the Advancement of Science 10.12.1993; American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Amino acid sequencing; Amino acids; Base Sequence; Binary codes; Biochemistry; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Codon; Codons; Cytochromes; DNA; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gels; Gene Library; Genes, Synthetic; Libraries; Methods. Procedures. Technologies; Molecular Sequence Data; Molecular Weight; Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; Protein Conformation; Protein Engineering; Protein Folding; Protein Structure, Secondary; Proteins; Proteins - chemistry; Proteins - genetics; Proteins - isolation & purification; Research Article; Synthetic genes; Protein engineering; Side chain; Synthetic product; Molecular structure; Gene; Refolding; Helical structure; Recombinant protein; Polar compound; Gene expression; Apolar compound; Aminoacid sequence
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.8259512

A general strategy is described for the de novo design of proteins. In this strategy the sequence locations of hydrophobic and hydrophilic residues were specified explicitly, but the precise identities of the side chains were not constrained and varied extensively. This strategy was tested by constructing a large collection of synthetic genes whose protein products were designed to fold into four-helix bundle proteins. Each gene encoded a different amino acid sequence, but all sequences shared the same pattern of polar and nonpolar residues. Characterization of the expressed proteins indicated that most of the designed sequences folded into compact α-helical structures. Thus, a simple binary code of polar and nonpolar residues arranged in the appropriate order can drive polypeptide chains to collapse into globular α-helical folds.