Synthetic Oplophorus Luciferases with Enhanced Light Output
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(19) *EP003409764B1* (11) EP 3 409 764 B1 (12) EUROPEAN PATENT SPECIFICATION (45) Date of publication and mention (51) Int Cl.: of the grant of the patent: C12N 9/02 (2006.01) C12Q 1/66 (2006.01) 15.04.2020 Bulletin 2020/16 (21) Application number: 18184699.9 (22) Date of filing: 03.05.2010 (54) SYNTHETIC OPLOPHORUS LUCIFERASES WITH ENHANCED LIGHT OUTPUT SYNTHETISCHE OPLOPHORUS-LUCIFERASEN MIT ERHÖHTER LICHTLEISTUNG LUCIFÉRASES OPLOPHORUS SYNTHÉTIQUES AVEC ÉMISSION LUMINEUSE AMÉLIORÉE (84) Designated Contracting States: (74) Representative: Hoffmann Eitle AL AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB Patent- und Rechtsanwälte PartmbB GR HR HU IE IS IT LI LT LU LV MC MK MT NL NO Arabellastraße 30 PL PT RO SE SI SK SM TR 81925 München (DE) (30) Priority: 01.05.2009 US 174838 P (56) References cited: WO-A1-95/18853 WO-A2-2012/061530 (43) Date of publication of application: 05.12.2018 Bulletin 2018/49 • INOUYE <A> S ET AL: "Secretional luciferase of the luminous shrimp Oplophorus gracilirostris: (62) Document number(s) of the earlier application(s) in cDNA cloning of a novel imidazopyrazinone accordance with Art. 76 EPC: luciferase<1>", FEBS LETTERS, ELSEVIER, 17154777.1 / 3 181 687 AMSTERDAM, NL LNKD- 15186652.2 / 2 990 478 DOI:10.1016/S0014-5793(00)01963-3, vol. 481, no. 10717013.6 / 2 456 864 1, 8 September 2000 (2000-09-08), pages 19-25, XP004337549, ISSN: 0014-5793 (73) Proprietor: Promega Corporation • FUJII ET AL: "Increase in bioluminescence Madison, WI 53711-5399 (US) intensity of firefly luciferase using genetic modification", ANALYTICAL BIOCHEMISTRY, (72) Inventors: ACADEMIC PRESS INC, NEW YORK LNKD- • Encell, Lance P. DOI:10.1016/J.AB.2007.04.018, vol. 366, no. 2, 21 Fitchburg, WI 53711 (US) June 2007 (2007-06-21) , pages 131-136, • Wood, Keith V. XP022126352, ISSN: 0003-2697 Mt. Horeb, WI 53572 (US) • LOENING ANDREAS MARKUS ET AL: • Wood, Monika G. "Consensus guided mutagenesis of Renilla Mt. Horeb, WI 53572 (US) luciferase yields enhanced stability and light • Hall, Mary P. output", PROTEIN ENGINEERING, DESIGN AND Waunakee, WI 53597 (US) SELECTION, OXFORD JOURNAL, LONDON, GB •Otto, Paul LNKD- DOI:10.1093/PROTEIN/GZL023, vol. 19, Madison, WI 53704 (US) no. 9, 1 September 2006 (2006-09-01), pages • Vidugiris, Gediminas 391-400, XP002524403, ISSN: 1741-0126 Fitchburg, WI 53711 (US) [retrieved on 2006-07-20] • Zimmerman, Kristopher Madison, WI 53711 (US) Note: Within nine months of the publication of the mention of the grant of the European patent in the European Patent Bulletin, any person may give notice to the European Patent Office of opposition to that patent, in accordance with the Implementing Regulations. Notice of opposition shall not be deemed to have been filed until the opposition fee has been paid. (Art. 99(1) European Patent Convention). EP 3 409 764 B1 Printed by Jouve, 75001 PARIS (FR) EP 3 409 764 B1 Description CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 5 [0001] This application claims priority to United States Provisional Application No. 61/174,838, filed May 1, 2009. BACKGROUND [0002] The present invention relates to synthetic Oplophorus luciferases having enhanced properties compared to 10 wild-type Oplophorus luciferase. [0003] The deep-sea shrimp Oplophorus gracilirostris ejects a blue luminous cloud from the base of its antennae when stimulated, like various other luminescent decapod shrimps including those of the genera Heterocarpus, Systellaspis and Acanthephyra (Herring, J. Mar. Biol. Assoc. UK, 156:1029 (1976)). The mechanism underlying the luminescence of Oplophorus involves the oxidation of Oplophorus luciferin (coelenterazine) with molecular oxygen, which is catalyzed 15 by Oplophorus luciferase as follows: 20 [0004] Coelenterazine, an imidazopyrazinone compound, is involved in the bioluminescence of a wide variety of organisms as a luciferin or as the functional moiety of photoproteins. For example, the luciferin of the sea pansy Renilla is coelenterazine (Inoue et al., Tetrahed. Lett., 18:2685 (1977)), and the calcium-sensitive photoprotein aequorin from the jellyfish Aequorea also contains coelenterazine as its functional moiety (Shimomura et al., Biochem., 17:994 (1978); 25 Head et al., Nature, 405:372 (2000)). [0005] INOUYE et al., FEBS LETT., 481 (1): 19-25 (2000), relates to the cDNA cloning of a secretional imidazopyrazi- none luciferase 1 of the luminous shrimp Oplophorus gracilirostris. [0006] FUJII et al., Analytical Biochemistry, 366 (2): 131-136 (2007), relates to an increase in bioluminescence intensity of firefly luciferase using genetic modification. 30 [0007] LOENING et al., Protein Engineering, Design and Selection 19(9): 391-400 relates to consensus guided mu- tagenesis of Renilla luciferase in order to yield enhanced stability and light output. [0008] WO9518853 relates to active, non-naturally occurring mutants of beetle luciferases and DNAs which encode such mutants, wherein a mutant luciferase differs from the corresponding wild-type luciferase by producing biolumines- cence with a wavelength of peak intensity that differs by at least 1 nm from the wavelength of peak intensity of the 35 bioluminescence produced by the wild-type enzyme. The mutant luciferases and DNAs of WO9518853 are employed in various biosensing applications. SUMMARY 40 [0009] The invention provides a method comprising: (a) expressing a luciferase polypeptide in a cell, wherein the luciferase polypeptide is a modified luciferase with at least 60% amino acid sequence identity to a wild-type Oplophorus luciferase, and comprising at least one amino acid substitution at a position selected from positions 2, 4, 11, 20, 23, 28, 33, 34, 44, 45, 51, 54, 68, 72, 75, 76, 77, 89, 90, 92, 99, 104, 115, 124, 135, 138, 139, 143, 144, 164, 166, 167, or 169 corresponding to SEQ ID NO:1, wherein the modified luciferase has at least one of enhanced luminescence, enhanced 45 signal stability, and enhanced protein stability relative to the wild-type Oplophorus luciferase; (b) exposing said luciferase polypeptide to a substrate; and (c) detecting luminescence. [0010] Other aspects of the invention are defined in the claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 50 [0011] Figure 1 shows secondary structure alignments of fatty acid binding proteins (FABPs) and OgLuc. 55 Figure 2 shows secondary structure alignments of dinoflagellate luciferase, FABP and OgLuc. Figure 3 shows an alignment of the amino acid sequences of OgLuc and various FABPs (SEQ ID NOs: 1, 3, 4, 5, and 17-20, respectively) based on 3D structure superimposition of FABPs. 2 EP 3 409 764 B1 Figures 4A-D shows the light output (i.e. luminescence) time course of OgLuc variants modified with a combination of two or more amino acid substitutions in OgLuc compared with the N166R OgLuc variant and Renilla luciferase. 4A-4B) Luminescence ("lum") in relative light units (RLU) using a "Flash" luminescence assay shown on two different luminescence scales over time in minutes. 4C-4D) Luminescence ("lum") in RLU using a "Glo" 0.5% tergitol lumi- 5 nescence assay shown on two different luminescence scales over time in minutes. Figures 5A-C summarize the average luminescence in RLU of the various OgLuc variants described in Example 7 ("Sample") at T=0 ("Average"), with standard deviation ("Stdev") and coefficient of variance ("CV") compared with WT OgLuc, using a 0.5% tergitol assay buffer. 10 Figures 6A-B summarize the increase fold in luminescence at T=0 of the OgLuc variants over WT OgLuc determined from the 0.5% tergitol assay buffer data shown in Figures 5A-C. Figures 7A-C summarize the average luminescence in RLU of the OgLuc variants ("Sample") at T=0 ("Average"), 15 with standard deviation ("Stdev") and coefficient of variance ("CV") compared with WT OgLuc, using RLAB. Figure 8 summarizes the increase fold in luminescence at T=0 of the OgLuc variants over WT OgLuc determined from the RLAB data shown in Figures 7A-C. 20 Figures 9A-D shows the signal stability of the OgLuc variants compared to WT OgLuc, using a 0.5% tergitol assay buffer. 9A-9C) Light output time course of the OgLuc variants ("clone"), with luminescence measured in RLU over time in minutes. 9D) Signal half-life in minutes of the OgLuc variants determined from light output time course data shown in Figures 9A-C. 25 Figures 10A-C shows the light output time course (i.e. signal stability) of the OgLuc variants compared to WT OgLuc, using RLAB, with luminescence measured in RLU over time in minutes. Figures 11A-B shows the signal half-life in minutes of the OgLuc variants compared to WT OgLuc determined from light output time course data shown in Figures 10A-C. 30 Figures 12A-B shows the protein stability at 22°C as the half-life in minutes of the OgLuc variants compared to WT OgLuc. Figures 13A-B summarize the average luminescence in RLU of the A33K and F68Y OgLuc variants at T=0 ("Aver- 35 age"), with coefficient of variance ("% cv"), compared to WT OgLuc, using 0.5% tergitol assay buffer (13A) or RLAB (13B). Figures 14A-B summarize the increase fold in luminescence at T=0 of the A33K and F68Y OgLuc variants over WT OgLuc, determined from the data shown in Figures 13A-B for assays using 0.5% tergitol assay buffer (14A) or RLAB 40 (14B), respectively. Figures 15A-B shows the signal stability of the A33K and F68Y OgLuc variants compared to WT OgLuc, using 0.5% tergitol assay buffer. 15A) Light output time course of the A33K and F68Y OgLuc variants, with luminescence measured in RLU over time in minutes. 15B) Signal half-life in minutes of the A33K and F68Y OgLuc variants 45 determined from light output time course data shown in Figures 15A. Figures 16A-B shows the signal stability of the A33K and F68Y OgLuc variants compared to WT OgLuc using RLAB.