Evolutionary mechanisms as a template for protein engineering

The diversity of today’s universe of proteins has developed via a multitude of small changes. Gene duplication provides the material for mutation and selection, while recombination contributes to the creation of diversity. These mechanisms are the basis for many successful protein engineering experiments. The amount of available sequence and structural data enables general assumptions about important factors in structure-function relationships. These findings are used in rational and computational design to build proteins with desired new properties.