Open AccessExtended yeast surface display linkers enhance the enrichment of ligands in direct mammalian cell selections
Author(s) -
Patrick S. Lown,
Jessy J Cai,
Seth Ritter,
Jacob J Otolski,
Ryan Wong,
Benjamin J. Hackel
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
protein engineering, design and selection
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.627
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1741-0134
pISSN - 1741-0126
DOI - 10.1093/protein/gzab004
Subject(s) - linker , yeast , ligand (biochemistry) , chemistry , cell , amino acid , extracellular , biochemistry , epidermal growth factor receptor , receptor , biophysics , biology , computer science , operating system
Selections of yeast-displayed ligands on mammalian cell monolayers benefit from high target expression and nanomolar affinity, which are not always available. Prior work extending the yeast-protein linker from 40 to 80 amino acids improved yield and enrichment but is hypothesized to be below the optimal length, prompting evaluation of an extended amino acid linker. A 641-residue linker provided enhanced enrichment with a 2-nM affinity fibronectin ligand and 105 epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR) per cell (14 ± 2 vs. 8 ± 1, P = 0.008) and a >600-nM affinity ligand, 106 EGFR per cell system (23 ± 7 vs. 0.8 ± 0.2, P = 0.004). Enhanced enrichment was also observed with a 310-nM affinity affibody ligand and 104 CD276 per cell, suggesting a generalizable benefit to other scaffolds and targets. Spatial modeling of the linker suggests that improved extracellular accessibility of ligand enables the observed enrichment under conditions not previously possible.