Toying with a molecular enzyme - hybrid enzyme synthesized that performs functions of its constituent parts - Biochemistry - Brief Article

Science News, March 8, 1997 by Corinna Wu

Instead of searching for existing enzymes with desirable properties or designing new ones from scratch, a team of scientists has taken an in-between approach. Using a method akin to making a model with a toy construction set, the scientists have created a working hybrid enzyme by connecting individual pieces of other enzymes.

Stephen J. Benkovic and his colleagues at Pennsylvania State University in State College stitched together the genes for sections of two bacterial enzymes involved in the synthesis of adenine and guanine, components of DNA. The resulting hybrid enzyme successfully combines functions of the original enzymes.

The group's work, which appears in the Feb. 18 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that enzymes may have evolved by mixing and matching distinct working parts. Benkovic suggests that "when Nature found a solution to this complicated problem of catalysis, she used it over and over again," assembling enzymes in a modular fashion. The scientists' next step is to see if they can substitute sections from a third enzyme and retain the hybrid's function.