TemPL: A Novel Deep Learning Model for Zero-Shot Prediction of Protein Stability and Activity Based on Temperature-Guided Language Modeling

We introduce TemPL, a novel deep learning approach for zero-shot prediction of protein stability and activity, harnessing temperature-guided language modeling. By assembling an extensive dataset of 96 million sequence-host bacterial strain optimal growth temperatures (OGTs) and ΔTm data for point mutations under consistent experimental conditions, we effectively compared TemPL with state-of-the-art models. Notably, TemPL demonstrated superior performance in predicting protein stability. An ablation study was conducted to elucidate the influence of OGT prediction and language modeling modules on TemPL’s performance, revealing the importance of integrating both components. Consequently, TemPL offers considerable promise for protein engineering applications, facilitating the design of mutation sequences with enhanced stability and activity.