Selected publications since 2000

Original research articles

2013

Sperl, J. M., Rohweder, B., Rajendran, C. & Sterner, R. (2013). Establishing catalytic activity on an artificial (βα)₈-barrel protein designed from identical half-barrels. FEBS Lett. 587, 2798-2805.

Meier, M.M., Rajendran, C., Malisi, C., Fox, N.G., Xu, C., Schlee, S., Barondeau, D.P. Hoecker, B., Sterner, R. & Raushel, F.M. (2013). Molecular engineering of organophosphate hydrolysis activity from a weak promiscuous lactonase template. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 135, 11670-11677.

Hauptmann, J., Dueck, A., Harlander, S., Pfaff, J., Merkl, R. & Meister, G. (2013). Turning catalytically inactive human Argonaute proteins into active slicer enzymes. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 20, 814-817.

Schlee, S., Dietrich, S., Kurcon, T., Delaney, P., Goodey, N.M. & Sterner, R. (2013). Kinetic mechanism of indole-3-glycerol phosphate synthase. Biochemistry 52, 132-142.

2012 - 2011

List, F., Vega, M. C., Razeto, A., Haeger, M. C., Sterner, R. & Wilmanns, M. (2012). Catalysis uncoupling in a glutamine amidotransferase bienzyme by unblocking the glutaminase active site. Chem. Biol. 19, 1589-1599.

Reisinger, B.,  Bocola, M., List, F., Claren, J., Rajendran, C. & Sterner, R. (2012). A sugar isomerization reaction established on various (βα)₈ -barrel scaffolds is based on substrate-assisted catalysis. Protein Eng. Des. Sel. 11, 751-760.

Carstensen, L., Sperl, J. M., Bocola, M., List, F., Schmid, F. X. & Sterner, R. (2012). Conservation of the folding mechanism between designed primordial (βα)₈-barrel proteins and their modern descendant. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 134, 12786-12791.

Dietrich, S., Borst, N., Schlee, S., Schneider, D., Janda, J. O., Sterner, R. & Merkl, R. (2012). Experimental assessment of the importance of amino acid positions identified by an entropy-based correlation analysis of multiple sequence alignments. Biochemistry 51, 5633-5641.

Peterhoff, D., Zellner, H., Gudan, H., Merkl, R., Sterner, R. & Babinger, P. (2012).  Dimerization determines substrate specificity of a bacterial prenyltransferase. ChemBioChem 13, 1297-1303.

Evran, S., Telefoncu, A. & Sterner, R. (2012). Directed evolution of (βα)₈-barrel enzymes: establishing phosphoribosylanthranilate isomerisation activity on the scaffold of the tryptophan synthase α-subunit. Protein Eng. Des. Sel. 25, 285-293.

Craig, D. B., Schwab, T. & Sterner, R. (2012). Random mutagenesis suggests that sequence errors are not a major cause of variation in the activity of individual molecules of β-galactosidase. Biochem. Cell Biol. 90, 540-547.

Carstensen, L., Zoldák, G., Schmid, F. X. & Sterner, R. (2012). Folding mechanism of an extremely thermostable (βα)₈-barrel enzyme: a high kinetic barrier protects the protein from denaturation. Biochemistry 51, 3420-3432.

List, F., Bocola, M., Haeger, M. C. & Sterner, R. (2012). Constitutively active glutaminase variants provide insights into the activation mechanism of anthranilate synthase. Biochemistry 51, 2812-2818.

Guldan, H., Matysik, F. M., Bocola, M., Sterner, R. & Babinger, P. (2011). Functional assignment of an enzyme that catalyzes the synthesis of an archaea-type ether lipid in bacteria. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 50, 8188-8191.

Fischer, A., Seitz, T., Lochner, A., Sterner, R., Merkl, R. & Bocola, M. (2011). A fast and precise approach for computational saturation mutagenesis and its experimental validation by using an artificial (βα)₈-barrel protein. ChemBioChem 12, 1544-1550.

Schwab, T. & Sterner, R. (2011). Stabilization of a metabolic enzyme by library selection in Thermus thermophilus. ChemBioChem  12, 1581-1588.

2010 - 2009

Ehrmann, A., Richter, K., Busch, F., Reimann, J., Albers, S.V. & Sterner, R. (2010). Ligand-inducted formation of a transient tryptophan synthase complex with αββ subunit stoichiometry. Biochemistry 49, 10842-10853.

Mandach, C. & Merkl R. (2010) Genes optimized by evolution for accurate and fast translation encode in Archaea and Bacteria a braod and characteristic spectrum of protein functions. BMC Genomics 11, 617.

Seitz, T., Thoma, R., Schoch, G.A., Stihle, M., Benz, J., D'Arcy, B., Wiget, A., Ruf, A., Hennig, M. & Sterner, R. (2010). Enhancing the stability and solubility of the glucocorticoid receptor ligand-binding domain by high-throughput library screening. J. Mol. Biol. 403, 562-577.

Liebold, C., List, F., Kalbitzer, H.R., Sterner, R. & Brunner, E. (2010). The interaction of ammonia and xenon with the imidazole glycerol phosphate synthase from Thermotoga maritima as detected by NMR spectroscopy.  Protein Sci. 19, 1774-1782.

Richter, M., Bosnali, M., Carstensen, L., Seitz, T., Durchschlag, H., Blanquart, S., Merkl, R. & Sterner, R. (2010). Computational and experimental evidence for the evolution of a (βα)₈-barrel protein from an ancestral quarter-barrel stabilised by disulfide bonds.  J. Mol. Biol. 398, 763-773.

Drzewiecki, K., Angelov, A., Ballschmiter, M. Tiefenbach, K.-J., Sterner, R. & Liebl, W. (2010) Hyperthermostable acetyl xylan esterase. Microbial Biotechnol. 3, 84-92.

Merkl R, Wiezer A. (2009) GO4genome: A prokaryotic phylogeny based on genome organization. J. Mol. Evol. 68, 550-562.

Schlee, S., Deuss, M., Bruning, M., Ivens, A., Schwab, T., Hellmann, N., Mayans, O. & Sterner, R. (2009). Activation of anthranilate phosphoribosyl transferase from Sulfolobus solfataricus by removal of Mg-inhibition and acceleration of product release. Biochemistry 48, 5199-5209.

Claren, J., Malisi, C., Höcker, B. & Sterner, R. (2009). Establishing wild-type levels of catalytic activity on natural and artificial (βα)₈-barrel protein scaffolds.  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 106, 3704-3709.

Xiang, D. F., Kolb, P., Meier, M. M., Fedorov, E. V., Fedorov, A. A., Sterner, R., Almo S. C., Shoichet, B. K. & Raushel, F. M. (2009). Functional annotation and three-dimensional structure of Dr0930 from Deinococcus radiodurans: A close relative of phosphotriesterase in the amidohydrolase family. Biochemistry 48, 2237-2247.

Fischer, A., Enkler, N., Neudert, G., Bocola, M., Sterner, R. & Merkl, R. (2009). TransCent: Computational enzyme design by transferring active sites and considering constraints relevant for catalysis. BMC Bioinformatics 10, 54.

Höcker, B., Lochner, A., Seitz, T., Claren, J. & Sterner, R. (2009). High-resolution crystal structure of an artificial (βα)₈-barrel protein designed from identical half-barrels.  Biochemistry 48, 1145-1147.

2008 - 2006

Guldan, H., Sterner, R. & Babinger, P. (2008). Identification and Characterization of a Bacterial Glycerol-1-phosphate Dehydrogenase: Ni²⁺ -Dependent AraM from Bacillus subtilis. Biochemistry 47, 7376-7384.

Merkl, R. & Zwick, M. (2008). H2r:Identification of evolutionary important residues by means of an entropy based analysis of multiple sequence alignments. BMC Bioinformatics 9, 151.

Reetz, M. T., Rentzsch, M., Pletsch, A., Taglieber, A., Hollmann, F., Mondière, R. J. G., Dickmann, N., Höcker, B., Cerrone, S., Haeger, M. C. & Sterner, R. (2008). A Robust Protein Host for Anchoring Chelating Ligands and Organocatalysts. ChemBioChem 9, 552-564.

Schwab, T., Skegro, D., Mayans, O. & Sterner, R. (2008). A rationally designed monomeric variant of anthranilate phosphoribosyltransferase from Sulfolobus solfataricus is as active as the dimeric wild-type enzyme but less thermostable. J. Mol. Biol. 376, 506-516.

Seitz, T., Bocola, M., Claren, J. & Sterner, R. (2007). Stabilization of a (βα)₈-Barrel Protein Designed from Identical Half Barrels. J. Mol. Biol. 372, 114-129.

Merkl, R. (2007). Modelling the evolution of the archeal tryptophan synthase. BMC Evol Biol. 7, 59.

Merkl, R. (2006). AMIGOS: a method for the inspection of genomic organisation or structure and its application to characterise conserved gene arrangements. In Silico Biol. 6, 281-306.

Waack, S., Keller, O., Asper, R., Brodag, T., Damm, C., Fricke, W. F., Surovcik, K., Meinicke, P. & Merkl, R. (2006). Score-based prediction of genomic islands in prokaryotic genomes using hidden Markov models. BMC Bioinformatics 7, 142.

Merkl, R. (2006). A comparative categorization of protein function encoded in bacterial or archeal genomic islands. J Mol Evol. 62, 1-14.

Leopoldseder, S., Hettwer, S. & Sterner, R. (2006). Evolution of Multi-Enzyme Complexes: The Case of Tryptophan Synthase. Biochemistry 45, 14111-14119.

Marino, M., Deuss, M., Svergun, D., Konarev, P., Sterner, R. & Mayans, O. (2006). Structural and Mutational Analysis of Substrate Complexation by Anthranilate Phosphoribosyltransferase from Sulfolobus solfataricus. J. Biol. Chem. 281, 21410-21421.

2005 - 2003

Schneider, B., Knöchel, T., Darimont, B., Hennig, M., Dietrich, S., Babinger, K., Kirschner, K. & Sterner, R. (2005). Role of the N-terminal Extension of the (βα)₈-Barrel Enzyme Indole-3-Glycerol Phosphate Synthase for its Fold, Stability and Catalytic Activity. Biochemistry 44, 16405-16412.

Vega, C., Zou, P., Fernandez, F., Murphy, G., Sterner, R., Popov, A. & Wilmanns, M. (2005). Regulation of the hetero-octameric ATP phosphoribosyl transferase complex from Thermotoga maritima by a tRNA-synthetase-like subunit. Mol. Microbiol. 55, 675-686.

Wiezer, A. & Merkl, R. (2005). A comparative categorization of gene flux in diverse microbial species. Genomics 86, 462-475.

Höcker, B., Claren, J. & Sterner, R. (2004). Mimicking enzyme evolution by generating new (βα)₈-barrels from (βα)₄-half-barrels. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 16448-16453.

Thiemann, V., Dönges, C., Prowe, S., Sterner, R. & Antranikian, G. (2004). Characterisation of a thermoalkali-stable cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase from the anaerobic thermoalkaliphilic bacterium Anaerobranca gottschalkii. Arch. Microbiol. 182, 226-235.

Leopoldseder, S., Claren, J., Jürgens, C. & Sterner, R. (2004). Interconverting the catalytic activities of (βα)₈-barrel enzymes from different metabolic pathways: sequence requirements and molecular analysis. J. Mol. Biol. 337, 871-879.

Meinicke, P., Tech, M., Morgenstern, B. & Merkl, R. (2004). Oligo kernels for datamining on biological sequences: a case study on prokaryotic translation initiation sites. BMC Bioinformatics 5, 169.

Veith, B., Herzberg, C., Steckel, S., Feesche, J., Maurer, K. H., Ehrenreich, P., Bäumer, S., Henne, A., Liesegang, H., Merkl, R., Ehrenreich, A. & Gottschalk, G. (2004). The complete genome sequence of Bacillus licheniformis DSM13, an organism with great industrial potential. J Mol Microbiol Biotechnol. 7, 204-211.

Merkl, R. (2004). SIGI: score-based identification of genomic islands. BMC Bioinformatics 5, 22.

Henne, A., Brüggemann, H., Raasch, C., Wiezer, A., Hartsch, T., Liesegang, H., Johann, A., Lienard, T., Gohl, O., Martinez-Arias, R., Jacobi, C., Starkuviene, V., Schlenczeck, S., Dencker, S., Huber, R., Klenk, H. P., Kramer W., Merkl, R., Gottschalk, G., & Fritz, H.J.(2004). The genome sequence of the extreme thermophile Thermus thermophilus. Nat. Biotechnol. 22, 547-553.

Helmstaedt, K., Heinrich, G., Merkl, R. & Braus, G. H. (2004). Chorismate mutase of Thermus thermophilus is a monofunctional AroH class enzyme inhibited by tyrosine. Arch Microbiol. 181, 195-203.

Tech, M. & Merkl, R. (2003). YACOP: Enhanced gene prediction obtained by a combination of existing methods. In Silico Biol. 3, 441-451.

Merkl, R. (2003). A survey of codon and amino acid frequency bias in microbial genomes focusing on translational efficiency. J Mol Evol. 57, 453-466.

Wiezer, A. & Merkl, R. (2003). secureBLAST. In Silico Biol. 3, 405-409.

Bruggemann, H., Baumer, S., Fricke, W. F., Wiezer, A., Liesegang, H., Decker, I., Herzber, C., Martinez-Arias, R., Merkl, R., Henne, A. & Gottschalk, G. (2003). The genome sequence of Clostridium tetani, the causative agent of tetanus disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 100, 1316-1321.

2002 - 2000

Henn-Sax, M., Thoma, R., Schmidt, S., Hennig, M., Kirschner, K. & Sterner, R. (2002). Two (βα)₈-barrel enzymes of histidine and tryptophan biosynthesis have similar reaction mechanisms and common strategies for protecting their labile substrates. Biochemistry 41, 12032-12042.

Hettwer, S. & Sterner, R. (2002). A novel tryptophan synthase β-subunit from the hyperthermophile Thermotoga maritima: quaternary structure, steady-state kinetics, and putative physiological role. J. Biol. Chem. 277, 8194-8201.

Douangamath, A., Walker, M., Beismann-Driemeyer, S., Vega-Fernandez, M.C., Sterner, S. & Wilmanns, M. (2002). Structural evidence for ammonia tunnelling across the (βα)₈-barrel of the imidazole glycerol phosphate synthase bienzyme complex. Structure 10, 185-193.

Höcker, B., Schmidt, S. & Sterner, R. (2002). A common evolutionary origin of two elementary enzyme folds. FEBS letters 510, 133-135.

Larbig, K. D., Christmann, A., Johann, A., Klockgether, J., Hartsch, T., Merkl, R., Wiehlmann, L., Fritz, H. J. & Tümmler, B. (2002). Gene islands integrated into tRNA(Gly) genes confer genome diversity on a Pseudomonas aeruginosa clone. J Bacteriol. 184, 6665-6680.

Deppenmeier, U., Johann, A., Hartsch, T., Merkl, R., Schmitz, R. A., Martinez-Arias, R., Henne, A., Wiezer, A., Bäumer, S., Jacobi, C., Brüggemann, H., Lienard, T., Christmann, A., Bömeke, M., Steckel, S., Bhattacharyya, A., Lykidis, A., Overbeek, R., Klenk, H. P., Gunsalus, R. P., Fritz, H. J. & Gottschalk, G. (2002). The genome of Methanosarcina mazei: evidence for lateral gene transfer between bacteria and archaea. J Mol Microbiol Biotechnol. 4, 453-461.

Beismann-Driemeyer, S. & Sterner, R. (2001). Imidazole glycerol phosphate synthase from Thermotoga maritima: Quaternary structure, steady-state kinetics and reaction mechanism of the bi-enzyme complex. J. Biol. Chem. 276, 20387-20996.

Höcker, B., Beismann-Driemeyer, S., Hettwer, S., Lustig, A. & Sterner, R. (2001). Dissection of a (βα)₈-barrel enzyme into two folded halves. Nat. Struct. Biol. 8, 32-36.

Lang, D., Thoma, R., Henn-Sax, M., Sterner, R. & Wilmanns, M. (2000). Structural evidence for evolution of the  β/α barrel scaffold by gene duplication and fusion. Science 289, 1546-1550.

Jürgens, C., Strom, A., Wegener, D., Hettwer, S., Wilmanns, M. & Sterner, R. (2000). Directed evolution of a (βα)₈-barrel enzyme to catalyze related reactions in two different metabolic pathways. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97, 9925-9930.

Thoma, R., Hennig, M., Sterner, R. & Kirschner, K. (2000). Structure and function of mutationally generated monomers of dimeric phosphoribosylanthranilate isomerase from Thermotoga maritima. Structure 8, 265-276.

Reviews

Sterner, R. & Höcker, B. (2005). Catalytic versatility , stability, and evolution of the (βα)₈-barrel enzyme fold. Chemical Reviews 105, 4038-4055.

Jaenicke, R. & Sterner, R. Life at high temperatures. In: M. Dworkin et al., eds., The Procaryotes: An Evolving Electronic Resource for the Microbiological Community, 3rd edition (Latest update release 3.9, March 2002), New York, Springer-Verlag, 2000.

Sterner, R. & Liebl, W. (2001). Thermophilic Adaptation of Proteins. Crit. Rev. Biochem. Mol. Biol. 63, 39-106.

Sterner, R., Merz, A., Thoma, R. & Kirschner, K. (2001). Phosphoribosyl anthranilate isomerase and indoleglycerol phosphate synthase: tryptophan biosynthetic enzymes from Thermotoga maritima. Meth. Enzymol. 331, 270-280.

Sterner, R. (2001). 4Fe-4S ferredoxin from Thermotoga maritima. Meth. Enzymol. 334, 23-30.

Höcker, B., Jürgens, C., Wilmanns, M. & Sterner, R. (2001). Stability, catalytic versatility and evolution of the (βα)₈-barrel fold. Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 12, 376-381.

Henn-Sax, M., Höcker, B., Wilmanns, M. & Sterner, R. (2001). Divergent evolution of (βα)₈-barrel enzymes. Biol. Chem. 382, 1315-1317.

Meeting reports, book reviews,  guest editorials

Sterner, R. (2011). Directed evolution: a powerful approach to optimising and understanding enzymes. ChemBioChem 12, 1439-1440.

Sterner, R., Merkl, R. & Raushel, F.M. (2008). Computational Design of Enzymes. Chem. Biol. 5, 421-423.

Sterner, R. & Skerra, A. (2007). Design von Enzymen und anderen Proteinen: Einblicke aus Natur, Labor und Computersimulationen. Biospektrum 07, 814.

Sterner, R. & Schmid, F.X. (2004). De novo design of an enzyme. Science 304, 1916-1917.

Schmid, F.X. & Sterner, R. (2004). Protein Design. ChemBioChem 5, 143-144.

Jaenicke, R. & Sterner, R. (2003). Protein Design at the Crossroads of Biotechnology, Chemistry, Theory, and Evolution. Futura 18, 5-10.

Jaenicke, R. & Sterner, R. (2003). Protein Design at the Crossroads of Biotechnology, Chemistry, Theory, and Evolution. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 42, 140-142.

Sterner, R. (2003). Book Review: Directed Molecular Evolution of Proteins or How to Improve Enzymes for Biocatalysis. Edited by S. Brakmann and K. Johnsson. ChemBioChem 4, 119.