LINKING THE MESSENGER TO THE PROTEIN, A KEY TO IN VITRO EVOLUTION

摘要

Molecular evolution in the laboratory is becoming a feasible process. We show that by physically linking messenger and protein, genotype to phenotype, a protein can be part of an evolution cycle, the time scale being of the order of a day per cycle. The method used is to link the ribo-some, the messenger RNA and the nascent protein together and is called ribosome display. We discuss the historical development of the concept, its feasibility and time scale.