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Updated: Aug 24, 2026

Affinity Purification of a Fibrinolytic Enzyme from Sipunculus nudus
Published on: June 2, 2023
[DNA family shuffling of tissue-type plasminogen activator genes]
Qing-sheng Huang1, Jing Xu, Jun-jie Xu
1Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, AMMS, Beijing 100071, China.
Aim:
To probe the possibility of screening tPA with higher activity through DNA shuffling.
Methods:
Human, rat and rhesus monkey tPA cDNAs were used as the templates of "DNA family shuffling". The diverse tPA library was expressed in CHO cells, then the screening was carried out.
Results:
Two shuffled clones, t9 and t17 were selected. The activity of tPA expressed by t9 clone was 4-fold higher than the activity of human tPA. tPA expressed by t17 clone was found having a 88-amino-acid deletion, but still showed the same activity as human tPA. DNA sequencing demonstrated that the sequences of t9 and t17 were mainly derived from human and monkey tPA cDNAs.
Conclusion:
Above work has laid the foundation for further experiments in the screening for higher activity of tPA.
Insights
DNA shuffling successfully identified a tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) variant with fourfold higher activity. Another variant showed normal activity despite an 88-amino-acid deletion, paving the way for enhanced tPA screening.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology
- Molecular Biology
- Protein Engineering
Context:
- Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is crucial for fibrinolysis.
- Enhancing tPA activity is a key goal in thrombolytic therapy.
- DNA shuffling offers a powerful method for protein engineering.
Purpose:
- To explore DNA shuffling for screening higher-activity tissue plasminogen activator (tPA).
- To generate and evaluate a diverse library of tPA variants.
Summary:
- Human, rat, and rhesus monkey tPA cDNAs were used for DNA family shuffling.
- A library of shuffled tPA variants was expressed in CHO cells and screened.
- Two clones, t9 and t17, were selected: t9 exhibited 4x higher activity, while t17 showed normal activity with an 88-amino-acid deletion.
Impact:
- This study demonstrates the potential of DNA shuffling to discover improved tPA variants.
- The findings lay the groundwork for future research in screening for enhanced tPA activity.
- Identified variants offer insights into structure-activity relationships of tPA.
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