Enzyme function and its evolution
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Updated: Feb 19, 2026

A New Screening Method for the Directed Evolution of Thermostable Bacteriolytic Enzymes
Published on: November 7, 2012
1EaStCHEM School of Chemistry and Biomedical Sciences Research Complex, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, Scotland KY16 9ST, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
With rapid increases over recent years in the determination of protein sequence and structure, alongside knowledge of thousands of enzyme functions and hundreds of chemical mechanisms, it is now possible to combine breadth and depth in our understanding of enzyme evolution. Phylogenetics continues to move forward, though determining correct evolutionary family trees is not trivial. Protein function prediction has spawned a variety of promising methods that offer the prospect of identifying enzymes across the whole range of chemical functions and over numerous species. This knowledge is essential to understand antibiotic resistance, as well as in protein re-engineering and de novo enzyme design.
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