Yeast surface display for directed evolution of protein expression, affinity, and stability.

The described protocols enable thorough screening of polypeptide libraries with high confidence in the isolation of improved clones. It should be emphasized that the protocols have been fashioned for thoroughness, rather than speed. With library plasmid DNA in hand, the time to plated candidate yeast display mutants is typically 2-3 weeks. Each of the experimental approaches required for this method is fairly standard: yeast culture, immunofluorescent labeling, flow cytometry. Protocols that are more rapid could conceivably be developed by using solid substrate separations with magnetic beads, for instance. However, loss of the two-color normalization possible with flow cytometry would remove the quantitative advantage of the method. Yeast display complements existing polypeptide library methods and opens the possibility of examining extracellular eukaryotic proteins, an important class of proteins not generally amenable to yeast two-hybrid or phage display methodologies.

Directed evolution of antibody fragments with monovalent femtomolar antigen-binding affinity.

Single-chain antibody mutants have been evolved in vitro with antigen-binding equilibrium dissociation constant K(d) = 48 fM and slower dissociation kinetics (half-time > 5 days) than those for the streptavidin-biotin complex. These mutants possess the highest monovalent ligand-binding affinity yet reported for an engineered protein by over two orders of magnitude. Optimal kinetic screening of randomly mutagenized libraries of 10(5)-10(7) yeast surface-displayed antibodies enabled a >1,000-fold decrease in the rate of dissociation after four cycles of affinity mutagenesis and screening. The consensus mutations are generally nonconservative by comparison with naturally occurring mouse Fv sequences and with residues that do not contact the fluorescein antigen in the wild-type complex. The existence of these mutants demonstrates that the antibody Fv architecture is not intrinsically responsible for an antigen-binding affinity ceiling during in vivo affinity maturation.

Selection of functional T cell receptor mutants from a yeast surface-display library.

The heterodimeric alphabeta T cell receptor (TCR) for antigen is the key determinant of T cell specificity. The structure of the TCR is very similar to that of antibodies, but the engineering of TCRs by directed evolution with combinatorial display libraries has not been accomplished to date. Here, we report that yeast surface display of a TCR was achieved only after the mutation of specific variable region residues. These residues are located in two regions of the TCR, at the interface of the alpha- and beta-chains and in the beta-chain framework region that is thought to be in proximity to the CD3 signal-transduction complex. The mutations are encoded naturally in many antibody variable regions, indicating specific functional differences that have not been appreciated between TCRs and antibodies. The identification of these residues provides an explanation for the inherent difficulties in the display of wild-type TCRs compared with antibodies. Yeast-displayed mutant TCRs bind specifically to the peptide/MHC antigen, enabling engineering of soluble T cell receptors as specific T cell antagonists. This strategy of random mutagenesis followed by selection for surface expression may be of general use in the directed evolution of other eukaryotic proteins that are refractory to display.

A yeast surface display system for the discovery of ligands that trigger cell activation.

Opposing cells often communicate signalling events using multivalent interactions between receptors present on their cell surface. For example, T cells are typically activated when the T cell receptor (TCR) and its associated costimulatory molecules are multivalently engaged by the appropriate ligands present on an antigen presenting cell. In this report, yeast expressing high cell-surface levels of a TCR ligand (a recombinant antibody to the TCR Vbeta domain) were shown to act as 'pseudo' antigen presenting cells and induce T cell activation as monitored by increased levels of CD25 and CD69 and by downregulation of cell surface TCR. Similar levels of T cell activation could occur even when a 30-fold excess of irrelevant yeast was present, suggesting that such a yeast display system, by virtue of its ability to present ligands multivalently, may be used in highly sensitive procedures to identify novel polypeptides that interact multivalently with cell surface receptors and thereby trigger specific cellular responses.

Optimal screening of surface-displayed polypeptide libraries.

Cell surface display of polypeptide libraries combined with flow cytometric cell sorting presents remarkable potential for enhancement of protein-ligand recognition properties. To maximize the utility of this approach, screening and purification conditions must be optimized to take full advantage of the quantitative feature of this technique. In particular, discrimination of improved library mutants from an excess of wild-type polypeptides is dependent upon an effective screening methodology. Fluorescence discrimination profiles for improved library mutants were derived from a mathematical model of expected cell fluorescence intensities for polypeptide libraries screened with fluorescent ligand. Profiles for surface-displayed libraries under equilibrium or kinetic screening conditions demonstrate distinct discrimination optima from which optimal equilibrium and kinetic screening parameters were derived. In addition, a statistical model of low cytometrically analyzed cell populations indicates the importance of low-stringency sorting followed by amplification through regrowth and resorting at increased stringency. This analysis further yields quantitative recommendations for cell-sorting stringency.

Yeast surface display for screening combinatorial polypeptide libraries.

Display on the yeast cell wall is well suited for engineering mammalian cell-surface and secreted proteins (e.g., antibodies, receptors, cytokines) that require endoplasmic reticulum-specific post-translational processing for efficient folding and activity. C-terminal fusion to the Aga2p mating adhesion receptor of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been used for the selection of scFv antibody fragments with threefold decreased antigen dissociation rate from a randomly mutated library. A eukaryotic host should alleviate expression biases present in bacterially propagated combinatorial libraries. Quantitative flow cytometric analysis enables fine discrimination of kinetic parameters for protein binding to soluble ligands.

Isolation of anti-T cell receptor scFv mutants by yeast surface display.

Yeast surface display and sorting by flow cytometry have been used to isolate mutants of an scFv that is specific for the Vbeta8 region of the T cell receptor. Selection was based on equilibrium binding by two fluorescently labeled probes, a soluble Vbeta8 domain and an antibody to the c-myc epitope tag present at the carboxy-terminus of the scFv. The mutants that were selected in this screen included a scFv with threefold increased affinity for the Vbeta8 and scFv clones that were bound with reduced affinities by the anti-c-myc antibody. The latter finding indicates that the yeast display system may be used to map conformational epitopes, which cannot be revealed by standard peptide screens. Equilibrium antigen binding constants were estimated within the surface display format, allowing screening of isolated mutants without necessitating subcloning and soluble expression. Only a relatively small library of yeast cells (3 x 10[5]) displaying randomly mutagenized scFv was screened to identify these mutants, indicating that this system will provide a powerful tool for engineering the binding properties of eucaryotic secreted and cell surface proteins.