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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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Chemistry

WWU Graduate School Collection

Theses/Dissertations

Protein Engineering

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Engineering Class A Sortases: Activity And Selectivity Of Hybrid And Ancestral Variants, Sarah Struyvenberg Jan 2020

Engineering Class A Sortases: Activity And Selectivity Of Hybrid And Ancestral Variants, Sarah Struyvenberg

WWU Graduate School Collection

Bacterial sortases are cysteine transpeptidases that anchor virulence factors to the surface of bacterial cells. Sortases are a powerful tool utilized for protein engineering that allow researchers to modify proteins at the protein level, not the DNA level. However, important limitations to utilization of sortases for engineering purposes exist; namely, SrtA from S. aureus is a relatively modest enzyme compared to other SrtA enzymes and is very specific for the LPXTG motif. Previous work from our collaborators and others revealed that sortases from different species can recognize alternative sequences and that activities can vary widely. We were curious about how …


Progress Towards The Substrate-Bound Structure Of Streptococcus Pneumoniae Sortase A, Nicholas M. Horvath Jan 2019

Progress Towards The Substrate-Bound Structure Of Streptococcus Pneumoniae Sortase A, Nicholas M. Horvath

WWU Graduate School Collection

Sortases are cysteine transpeptidases found primarily on the cell surface of Gram-positive bacteria. Sortase-mediated ligations have become an attractive option for protein modification chemistry, enabling the synthesis of a wide range of non-natural polypeptide derivatives. Attempts at understanding how these enzymes recognize and bind substrates are integral to furthering their usefulness in protein engineering and, potentially, treatment of bacterial diseases. However, the variable substrate specificity and activity between homologs of these enzymes is not yet fully understood. Of specific interest to us is sortase A from Streptococcus pneumoniae (SrtApneu), as it demonstrates a broad substrate tolerance not …