High-throughput screening technologies for enzyme engineering

Emerging technologies are enabling ultra-high-throughput screening of combinatorial enzyme libraries to identify variants with improved properties such as increased activity, altered substrate specificity, and increased stability. Each of these enzyme engineering platforms relies on compartmentalization of reaction components, similar to microtiter plate-based assays which have been commonly used for testing the activity of enzyme variants. The technologies can be broadly divided into three categories according to their spatial segregation strategy: (1) cells as reaction compartments, (2) in vitro compartmentalization via synthetic droplets, and (3) microchambers. Here, we discuss these emerging platforms, which in some cases enable the screening of greater than 10 million enzyme variants, and highlight benefits and limitations of each technology.