Periplasmic Screening for Artificial Metalloenzymes

Artificial metalloenzymes represent an attractive means of combining state-of-the-art transition metal catalysis with the benefits of natural enzymes. Despite the tremendous recent progress in this field, current efforts toward the directed evolution of these hybrid biocatalysts mainly rely on the laborious, individual purification of protein variants rendering the throughput, and hence the outcome of these campaigns feeble. We have recently developed a screening platform for the directed evolution of artificial metalloenzymes based on the streptavidin-biotin technology in the periplasm of the Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli. This periplasmic compartmentalization strategy comprises a number of compelling advantages, in particular with respect to artificial metalloenzymes, which lead to a drastic increase in the throughput of screening campaigns and additionally are of unique value for future in vivo applications. Therefore, we highlight here the benefits of this strategy and intend to propose a generalized guideline for the development of novel transition metal-based biocatalysts by directed evolution in order to extend the natural enzymatic repertoire.