Plant Protein Engineering

This first volume of the plant and microbial biotechnology series introduces the concepts and potential of plant protein engineering and gives an account of current research in the field. An essential purchase for academic and industrial research institutions and professional biotechnologists.

An All-Inclusive Review of the Achievements and Trends in the Fast-Growing Protein Engineering Field From humble beginnings like making fire for mere survival, engineering now steadfastly penetrates all aspects of our lives and even life itself at the molecular level. Protein engineering is a molecular biological discipline focused on designing and constructing novel proteins with desired properties. The currently limited understanding of the relationship between protein structure and function greatly hinders rational protein design. However, despite great challenges, protein engineering has become a major molecular discipline with a large array of successful applications to many complex medicinal problems. Medicinal Protein Engineering sheds light on this largely unchartered field, covering major strategies for engineering of proteins with predetermined biological properties. It discusses computational approaches to protein design and experimental approaches to protein construction. This volume also explores the tight connection between protein and genetic engineering. It moves researchers beyond experimental protein construction and theoretical protein design to the medicinal applications of engineered proteins. Examines Medicinal Applications of Protein Engineering for the Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention of Diseases Focusing on the application of protein engineering to medicine, this seminal work outlines the appropriate techniques for studying protein properties and building mathematical engineering models of novel vaccines, diagnostic reagents, and therapeutic treatments. As a truly comprehensive assessment of the medical protein engineering research available and its future implications for disease control and prevention, this is an indispensable reference for biological researchers in this groundbreaking field.

Protein Engineering: Applications in Science, Medicine, and Industry deals with the scientific, medical, and industrial applications of protein engineering. Topics range from protein structure and design to mutant analysis and complex systems. Applications such as production of novel antibiotics, genetic transformation of plants, and genetic engineering of bioinsecticides are described. This book is comprised of 25 chapters and begins with an overview of trends and developments in protein chemistry and their relevance to protein engineering, followed by a discussion on protein sequence data banks. Subsequent chapters explore the design and construction of biologically active peptides, including hormones; structural and functional analysis of thermophile proteins; the conformation of diphtheria toxin; and applications of surface-simulation synthesis in protein molecular recognition. The use of oligonucleotide-directed site-specific mutagenesis in functional analysis of the signal peptide for protein secretion is also considered. The results of studies on the mechanism of membrane fusion are presented. This monograph will serve as a useful guide for those who are already working on protein engineering and those who are about to start research in this field.

No detailed description available for "Concepts in Protein Engineering and Design".

Protein engineering is a fascinating mixture of molecular biology, protein structure analysis, computation, and biochemistry, with the goal of developing useful or valuable proteins. Protein Engineering Protocols will consider the two general, but not mutually exclusive, strategies for protein engineering. The first is known as rational design, in which the scientist uses detailed knowledge of the structure and function of the protein to make desired changes. The s- ond strategy is known as directed evolution. In this case, random mutagenesis is applied to a protein, and selection or screening is used to pick out variants that have the desired qualities. By several rounds of mutation and selection, this method mimics natural evolution. An additional technique known as DNA shuffling mixes and matches pieces of successful variants to produce better results. This process mimics recombination that occurs naturally during sexual reproduction. The first section of Protein Engineering Protocols describes rational p- tein design strategies, including computational methods, the use of non-natural amino acids to expand the biological alphabet, as well as impressive examples for the generation of proteins with novel characteristics. Although procedures for the introduction of mutations have become routine, predicting and und- standing the effects of these mutations can be very challenging and requires profound knowledge of the system as well as protein structures in general.

Site-specific mutagenesis of DNA, developed some thirty years ago, has proven to be one of the most important advances in biology. By allowing the site-specific replacement of any amino acid in a protein with one of the other nineteen amino acids, it ushered in the new era of "Protein Engineering". The field of protein engineering has, however, evolved rapidly since then and the last fifteen years have witnessed remarkable advances through the use of new chemical, biochemical and molecular biological tools towards the synthesis and manipulation of proteins. The chapters included in this book reflect the rapid evolution of protein engineering and its many applications in basic research, biotechnology, material sciences and therapy. This book will provide the reader with an introduction to state-of the-art concepts and methods and will be of use to anyone interested in the study of proteins, in academia as well as in industry.

Recombinant Proteins from Plants is one of the most exciting and fastest developing areas in biology. The latest molecular techniques are being applied to the exploitation of plants as novel expression systems for the p- duction and overproduction of heterologous and native proteins. Transgenic plant technology is currently used in three broad areas: the expression of - combinant proteins to improve crop quality by increasing disease/pest res- tance or increasing tolerance to stress, optimizing plant productivity and yield by the genetic manipulation of metabolic pathways, and the large-scale co- effective production of recombinant proteins for use as specialist industrial or therapeutic biomolecules. The intention of Recombinant Proteins from Plants is to provide c- prehensive and detailed protocols covering all the latest molecular approaches. Because the production oftransgenic plants has become routine in many la- ratories, coverage is also given to some of the more "classical" approaches to the separation, analysis, and characterization of recombinant proteins. The book also includes areas of research that we believe will become increasingly important in the near future: efficient transformation of monocots with Agrobacterium optimizing the stability of recombinant proteins, and a section highlighting the immunotherapeutic potential of plant-expressed proteins.