Understanding enzyme function evolution from a computational perspective
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 23, 2026

A New Screening Method for the Directed Evolution of Thermostable Bacteriolytic Enzymes
Published on: November 7, 2012
Jonathan D Tyzack1, Nicholas Furnham2, Ian Sillitoe3
1EMBL-EBI, Wellcome Genome Campus, CB10 1SD, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
In this review, we will explore recent computational approaches to understand enzyme evolution from the perspective of protein structure, dynamics and promiscuity. We will present quantitative methods to measure the size of evolutionary steps within a structural domain, allowing the correlation between change in substrate and domain structure to be assessed, and giving insights into the evolvability of different domains in terms of the number, types and sizes of evolutionary steps observed. These approaches will help to understand the evolution of new catalytic and non-catalytic functionality in response to environmental demands, showing potential to guide de novoenzyme design and directed evolution experiments.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Catalytically Perfect Enzymes
Most enzymes...
Introduction to Enzymes
Most enzymes are proteins that speed up biochemical reactions without being consumed. Enzymes contain one or more active sites that...
Introduction to Enzyme Kinetics
The experimenter can then plot the initial reaction rate or velocity (Vo) of a given trial against the substrate concentration ([S]) to obtain a graph of the reaction properties. For many enzymatic reactions involving a...
Enzymes
Enzyme deficiencies can often translate into life-threatening diseases. For example, a genetic abnormality resulting in the deficiency of the enzyme G6PD...
Introduction to Mechanisms of Enzyme Catalysis
Enzyme Kinetics
Scientists typically study enzyme kinetics with a fixed amount of enzyme in the controlled environment of a test tube. When more reactant, or substrate, is...

