Recent Advances on Sorting Methods of High-Throughput Droplet-Based Microfluidics in Enzyme Directed Evolution
Review article, 2021

Droplet-based microfluidics has been widely applied in enzyme directed evolution (DE), in either cell or cell-free system, due to its low cost and high throughput. As the isolation principles are based on the labeled or label-free characteristics in the droplets, sorting method contributes mostly to the efficiency of the whole system. Fluorescence-activated droplet sorting (FADS) is the mostly applied labeled method but faces challenges of target enzyme scope. Label-free sorting methods show potential to greatly broaden the microfluidic application range. Here, we review the developments of droplet sorting methods through a comprehensive literature survey, including labeled detections [FADS and absorbance-activated droplet sorting (AADS)] and label-free detections [electrochemical-based droplet sorting (ECDS), mass-activated droplet sorting (MADS), Raman-activated droplet sorting (RADS), and nuclear magnetic resonance-based droplet sorting (NMR-DS)]. We highlight recent cases in the last 5 years in which novel enzymes or highly efficient variants are generated by microfluidic DE. In addition, the advantages and challenges of different sorting methods are briefly discussed to provide an outlook for future applications in enzyme DE.

high-throughput

droplet

sorting methods

microfluidics

enzyme directed evolution

Author

Xiaozhi Fu

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology

Yueying Zhang

Shandong First Medical University

Qiang Xu

Shandong First Medical University

Xiaomeng Sun

Shandong First Medical University

Fanda Meng

Shandong First Medical University

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Frontiers in Chemistry

22962646 (eISSN)

Vol. 9 666867

Subject Categories

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Analytical Chemistry

Biocatalysis and Enzyme Technology

DOI

10.3389/fchem.2021.666867

PubMed

33996758

More information

Latest update

5/28/2021