Facile characterization of translation initiation via nonsense codon suppression

Site-Specific Incorporation of Glycosylated Serine and Tyrosine Derivatives into Proteins

Glycosylation of proteins can have a dramatic effect on their physical, chemical, and biological properties. Analogues of dihydrofolate reductase and firefly luciferase containing glycosylated amino acids at single, predetermined sites have been elaborated. Misacylated suppressor tRNAs activated with glycosylated serine and tyrosine derivatives were used for suppression of the nonsense codons in a cell-free protein biosynthesizing system, thereby permitting the preparation of the desired glycosylated proteins. In this fashion, it was possible to obtain proteins containing both mono- and diglycosylated amino acids, including glycosylated serine and tyrosine moieties. For the modified firefly luciferases, the effect of these substitutions on the wavelength of the light emitted by firefly luciferase was investigated. The maximum wavelength for mutants containing peracetylated glycosylated serine derivatives at position 284 showed a red shift in the emission spectra. For mutants containing glycosylated tyrosines, the red shift was observed only when the carbohydrate moiety was fully deacetylated.

A new strategy for the synthesis of dinucleotides loaded with glycosylated amino acids--investigations on in vitro non-natural amino acid mutagenesis for glycoprotein synthesis

The in vitro non-natural amino acid mutagenesis method provides the opportunity to introduce non-natural amino acids site-specifically into proteins. To this end, a chemically synthesised aminoacylated dinucleotide is enzymatically ligated to a truncated suppressor transfer RNA. The loaded suppressor tRNA is then used in translation reactions to read an internal stop codon. Here we report an advanced and general strategy for the synthesis of the aminoacyl dinucleotide. The protecting group pattern developed for the dinucleotide facilitates highly efficient aminoacylation, followed by one-step global deprotection. The strategy was applied to the synthesis of dinucleotides loaded with 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-glycosylated amino acids, including N- and O-beta-glycosides and O- and C-alpha-glycosides of amino acids, thus enabling the extension of in vitro non-natural amino acid mutagenesis towards the synthesis of natural glycoproteins of high biological interest. We demonstrate the incorporation of the glycosylamino acids--although with low suppression efficiency--into the human interleukin granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (hG-CSF), as verified by the ELISA technique.

The N-pentenoyl protecting group for aminoacyl-tRNAs

The elaboration of misacylated transfer RNAs by T4 RNA ligase-mediated condensation of an aminoacylated pdCpA derivative and a tRNA (transcript) missing the two 3'-terminal nucleotides requires that the aminoacyl moiety of the dinucleotide be stabilized during the ligation reaction. This can be done conveniently by the use of a simple 4-pentenoyl group attached to N(alpha) of the amino acid. The pentenoyl amide can be deblocked readily with aqueous iodine, presumably via an iodolactone intermediate. This protecting group can be used in conjunction with side chain protecting group for amino acids having side chain functionality, thus permitting the elaboration of proteins bearing side chain protecting groups that can be removed in a subsequent step (e.g., caged proteins). In addition, an aminated analogue of the pentenoyl protecting group, the unnatural amino acid allylglycine, can be employed as part of the peptide backbone to afford a protein cleavable by iodine.

Caging proteins through unnatural amino acid mutagenesis

The caging of specific residues of proteins is a powerful tool. This discussion attempts to alert the reader to the considerations that must be made in preparing and analyzing a caged protein through nonsense suppression. Although the suppression methodology is conceptually straightforward, it not possible to provide a failsafe "cook book" method for using caged unnaturals. We have emphasized the preparation of caged receptors expressed in Xenopus oocytes, but these approaches can clearly be adapted to many other systems.

Five-base codons for incorporation of nonnatural amino acids into proteins

Extension of the genetic code for the introduction of nonnatural amino acids into proteins was examined by using five-base codon-anticodon pairs. A streptavidin mRNA containing a CGGUA codon at the Tyr54 position and a tRNA(UACCG) chemically aminoacylated with a nonnatural amino acid were added to an Escherichia coli in vitro translation system. Western blot analysis indicated that the CGGUA codon is decoded by the aminoacyl-tRNA containing the UACCG anticodon. HPLC analysis of the tryptic fragment of the translation product revealed that the nonnatural amino acid was incorporated corresponding to the CGGUA codon without affecting the reading frame adjacent to the CGGUA codon. Another 15 five-base codons CGGN(1)N(2), where N(1) and N(2) indicate one of four nucleotides, were also successfully decoded by aminoacyl-tRNAs containing the complementary five-base anticodons. These results provide a novel strategy for nonnatural mutagenesis as well as a novel insight into the mechanism of frameshift suppression.