Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 18, 2026
Preparing Protein Producing Synthetic Cells using Cell Free Bacterial Extracts, Liposomes and Emulsion Transfer
Published on: April 27, 2020
Directed Evolution of Proteins through In Vitro Protein Synthesis in Liposomes
Takehiro Nishikawa1, Takeshi Sunami, Tomoaki Matsuura
1ERATO Japan Science and Technology (JST) and Yomo Dynamical Micro-Scale Reaction Environment Project, Graduate School of Information Sciences and Technology, Osaka University, 1-5 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
Abstract:
Directed evolution of proteins is a technique used to modify protein functions through "Darwinian selection." In vitro compartmentalization (IVC) is an in vitro gene screening system for directed evolution of proteins. IVC establishes the link between genetic information (genotype) and the protein translated from the information (phenotype), which is essential for all directed evolution methods, by encapsulating both in a nonliving microcompartment. Herein, we introduce a new liposome-based IVC system consisting of a liposome, the protein synthesis using recombinant elements (PURE) system and a fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) used as a microcompartment, in vitro protein synthesis system, and high-throughput screen, respectively. Liposome-based IVC is characterized by in vitro protein synthesis from a single copy of a gene in a cell-sized unilamellar liposome and quantitative functional evaluation of the synthesized proteins. Examples of liposome-based IVC for screening proteins such as GFP and β-glucuronidase are described. We discuss the future directions for this method and its applications.
