Advanced evolutionary molecular engineering to produce thermostable cellulase by using a small but efficient library

We aimed at constructing thermostable cellulase variants of cellobiohydrolase II, derived from the mesophilic fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium, by using an advanced evolutionary molecular engineering method. By aligning the amino acid sequences of the catalytic domains of five thermophilic fungal CBH2 and PcCBH2 proteins, we identified 45 positions where the PcCBH2 genes differ from the consensus sequence of two to five thermophilic fungal CBH2s. PcCBH2 variants with the consensus mutations were obtained by a cell-free translation system that was chosen for easy evaluation of thermostability. From the small library of consensus mutations, advantageous mutations for improving thermostability were found to occur with much higher frequency relative to a random library. To further improve thermostability, advantageous mutations were accumulated within the wild-type gene. Finally, we obtained the most thermostable variant Mall4, which contained all 15 advantageous mutations found in this study. This variant had the same specific cellulase activity as the wild type and retained sufficient activity at 50°C for >72 h, whereas wild-type PcCBH2 retained much less activity under the same conditions. The history of the accumulation process indicated that evolution of PcCBH2 toward improved thermostability was ideally and rapidly accomplished through the evolutionary process employed in this study.