Characterization and engineering of a DNA polymerase reveals a single amino-acid substitution in the fingers subdomain to increase strand-displacement activity of A-family prokaryotic DNA polymerases

BACKGROUND: The discovery of thermostable DNA polymerases such as Taq DNA polymerase revolutionized amplification of DNA by polymerase chain reaction methods that rely on thermal cycling for strand separation. These methods are widely used in the laboratory for medical research, clinical diagnostics, criminal forensics and general molecular biology research. Today there is a growing demand for on-site molecular diagnostics; so-called ‘Point-of-Care tests’. Isothermal nucleic acid amplification techniques do not require a thermal cycler making these techniques more suitable for performing Point-of-Care tests at ambient temperatures compared to traditional polymerase chain reaction methods. Strand-displacement activity is essential for such isothermal nucleic acid amplification; however, the selection of DNA polymerases with inherent strand-displacement activity that are capable of performing DNA synthesis at ambient temperatures is currently limited. RESULTS: We have characterized the large fragment of a DNA polymerase I originating from the marine psychrophilic bacterium Psychrobacillus sp. The enzyme showed optimal polymerase activity at pH 8–9 and 25–110 mM NaCl/KCl. The polymerase was capable of performing polymerase as well as robust strand-displacement DNA synthesis at ambient temperatures (25–37 °C). Through molecular evolution and screening of thousand variants we have identified a single amino-acid exchange of Asp to Ala at position 422 which induced a 2.5-fold increase in strand-displacement activity of the enzyme. Transferring the mutation of the conserved Asp residue to corresponding thermophilic homologues from Ureibacillus thermosphaericus and Geobacillus stearothermophilus also resulted in a significant increase in the strand-displacement activity of the enzymes. CONCLUSIONS: Substituting Asp with Ala at positon 422 resulted in a significant increase in strand-displacement activity of three prokaryotic A-family DNA polymerases adapted to different environmental temperatures i.e. being psychrophilic and thermophilic of origin. This strongly indicates an important role for the 422 position and the O1-helix for strand-displacement activity of DNA polymerase I. The D422A variants generated here may be highly useful for isothermal nucleic acid amplification at a wide temperature scale. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12860-019-0216-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.