Directed evolution and solid phase enzyme screening

A new digital imaging spectrophotometer and a series of colorimetric solid phase arrays have been developed to screen bacterial libraries expressing mutagenized enzymes undergoing directed evolution. This high-throughput solid- phase array system (known as `Kcat Technology') can detect less than a 20% difference in enzyme rates within microcolonies grown at a nearly confluent density of 500 colonies per cm2 on an assay disk. Each microcolony is analyzed simultaneously at single-pixel resolution (1.5 megapixels; 75 micron/pixel), requiring less than 100 nanoliters of substrate per measurement, a 1000-fold reduction over conventional liquid phase assays. Here we report the successful identification of variants of Agrobacterium (beta) -glucosidase--a glycosidase with broad substrate specificity that favors cleavage of glucosides over galactosides--by simultaneously assaying two different substrates tagged with spectrally distinct chromogenic reporters.