Protein engineering from a bioindustrial point of view.

Work with proteins, particularly enzymes, is a rapidly growing segment of the biotechnology industry. Directed evolution promises to become an increasingly important strategy in their development as it allows one to sidestep some of the difficult questions relating the structural and functional properties of such proteins to their industrial utility. It is also clear, however, that greater understanding of how to engineer certain basic enzyme properties, such as stability, activity, and surface properties, is beginning to emerge, and this understanding will make rational design more efficient. To engineer a commercially useful protein many properties need to be changed, and frequently these changes are interdependent. Recent protein engineering studies on protease, amylase, lipase and cellulase illustrate some of the progress in this area.