非天然氨基酸引入法制备含有新型赖氨酸翻译后修饰蛋白质

近年来多种天然蛋白质中赖氨酸翻译后修饰被逐渐发现。这些翻译后修饰在蛋白质组中广泛存在,对染色体结构和基因转录表达功能具有重要的调控作用。然而,获得足量的具有特定翻译后修饰的蛋白质并非易事,发展制备方法对于后续表观遗传学研究极为重要。讨论了利用非天然氨基酸引入的手段制备含有这些新型赖氨酸翻译后修饰的蛋白。     

邻氰基-D，L-苯丙氨酸盐酸盐的合成与表征

氨基酸是构成多肽的基本单位,肽链中不同的氨基酸及氨基酸所含基团的不同使其在化学和生物活性等方面有着不同的性质。通过改变肽链中不同氨基酸来修饰肽链的结构和环境,能赋子肽链新的功能。天然氨基酸由于结构的原因,无法满足特殊的需要。随着生物化学合成、分离和测试技术的     

蛋白质的化学全合成

含有非天然氨基酸的蛋白质（如翻译后修饰蛋白质、修饰有探针分子的蛋白质等）是化学生物学中重要的生理活性分子。这些分子难以通过生物表达来获取，而必须使用化学方法来合成。半胱氨酸肽片段连接方法是目前应用于蛋白质化学全合成中的一种重要方法，该方法能够在温和的水溶液中高效地实现肽片段的连接，从而生成天然或者非天然的蛋白质。本文系统地综述了半胱氨酸肽片段连接方法的基本原理，详细讨论了近年来人们对该方法的一些重要改进。最后又介绍了该方法在几类重要的蛋白质分子合成中的代表性应用。     

基于非天然氨基酸的蛋白质生物正交标记

生物正交化学反应正日益成为在活体内对生物大分子进行特异标记的一种有效方法. 最近涌现出的一个突出的例子是将金属钯催化的碳碳偶联反应这一在有机合成领域具有里程碑意义的反应拓展到生物大分子的标记上. 在活细胞上进行生物正交反应的一个先决条件是需要将参与这类反应的正交官能团特异地引入到目标生物大分子当中. 遗传密码子拓展技术是将多种生物正交活性基团引入到蛋白质当中的一种先进的手段; 最近发展出的基于吡咯赖氨酸氨酰合成酶和tRNA的体系能够将携带有生物正交官能团的非天然氨基酸有效地引入到原核生物、真核生物, 甚至是动物体内的蛋白质上. 在这一展望中, 我们首先介绍在生物正交反应和遗传密码子拓展这两个领域内的研究前沿与进展. 接着我们将讨论将这些新发展的研究工具, 尤其是基于钯催化的生物正交反应和基于吡咯赖氨酸氨酰合成酶的遗传密码子拓展技术, 应用于标记和修饰哺乳动物细胞蛋白质上的优势和诱人前景. 生物相兼容性更好的正交反应和更为灵活的非天然氨基酸引入技术必将有力地增强和拓宽人们在活细胞环境下特异操纵蛋白质的能力.     

基于天然氨基酸的蛋白质修饰

基于天然氨基酸的蛋白质修饰种类繁多,由于在不同的氨基酸上所进行的修饰会对蛋白质的结构和功能产生不同的影响,所以科学家们一直在探索基于天然氨基酸特异的蛋白质修饰策略。本文主要以半胱氨酸、酪氨酸和蛋白质氮端特异修饰为例,简要回顾目前基于天然氨基酸的蛋白质化学的相关工作。     

多肽及蛋白质的化学合成研究

多肽与蛋白质作为生物体内的活性物质和生命活动的物质基础,在信号传递、能量利用、免疫应答等基础生理过程发挥着至关重要的作用,并与多种疾病的发生密切相关。获得一定数量高纯度的多肽和蛋白质是研究其结构、生物学功能以及开发相关药物的重要前提。天然多肽与蛋白质的来源主要有动植物的组织器官、微生物的次级代谢产物等。目前,自然提取、重组技术和化学合成是多肽与蛋白质的主要获得途径。相较于从天然产物中提取分离和基因重组表达,化学合成能够方便地在多肽与蛋白质的任意位点引入非天然氨基酸或特定类型的翻译后修饰基团,如糖基化、磷酸化、荧光团及光交联反应基团等,极大地促进了多肽与蛋白质在基础医学及生物医药研究领域的应用发展。本综述全面介绍了多肽与蛋白质的各种化学合成研究策略,并讨论了这些策略的基本原理、优缺点及应用价值,旨在为多肽及蛋白质的合成研究提供参考。     

赖氨酸翻译后修饰蛋白质的化学(半)合成及其应用

天然蛋白质的翻译后修饰是表观遗传学的重要研究方向之一.最近几年,新型赖氨酸翻译后修饰模式的发现及其对染色体结构和基因转录的重大调控作用是表观遗传学研究重点之一,引起了生物学家的广泛关注.目前发展了一系列含有特定赖氨酸翻译后修饰蛋白质的制备新方法.系统总结了制备含有新型赖氨酸翻译后修饰蛋白质的最新化学生物学方法,包括生物正交反应策略、非天然氨基酸引入策略、"非天然氨基酸修饰法"策略等,并讨论其优缺点及应用前景.     

生物正交反应法制备含有赖氨酸翻译后修饰类似物的蛋白质

翻译后修饰一直是表观遗传学的重要研究内容,尤其是近年来多种新型天然蛋白质中翻译后修饰被发现广泛存在于蛋白质组中。细胞生物学证明这些翻译后修饰对染色体结构和基因转录功能有关,但是其中具体的分子生物学机制还处于未知状态。为了后续的进一步研究,人们需要发展制备方法以求获取足量具有特定翻译后修饰的蛋白质。本文将讨论利用生物正交反应的手段制备含有这些新型赖氨酸翻译后修饰的蛋白的探索,期对教学与科研有助。     

基于Diels-Alder生物正交反应的蛋白质快速位点特异性标记方法

蛋白质的位点特异性修饰近年来取得了重要进展. 本文对该领域新近发展的利用高张力烯烃或炔烃与四嗪类化合物的Diels-Alder生物正交反应, 通过基因编码的方式在蛋白质中位点特异性地插入其中一个组分, 从而实现蛋白质的快速荧光标记进行了介绍.     

蛋白质半胱氨酸上的翻译后修饰组分析方法进展

半胱氨酸的巯基具有很高的反应活性,作为亲核、氧化还原催化反应、金属结合及变构调节位点等在蛋白质的结构和功能中发挥着非常重要的作用,且容易发生多种翻译后修饰,调控亦或损伤蛋白功能,与人类许多重要疾病关系密切,因此,定性与定量分析蛋白质半胱氨酸上的翻译后修饰组对理解其生物学功能具有重要意义。本文综述了近年来蛋白质半胱氨酸上常见的翻译后修饰组的质谱和蛋白质组学分析方法进展。     

From amino acids to heteroaromatics--thiopeptide antibiotics, nature's heterocyclic peptides

Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, also serve as precursors to a wide range of other naturally occurring substances including alkaloids, antibiotics, and, the subject of this Review, heterocyclic peptides. Simple alpha-amino acids are converted into complex arrays of heteroaromatic rings that display interesting and potent biological activity. The thiopeptide antibiotics, with their complex molecular architectures, are wonderful examples. In this Review we show how organic chemists have developed innovative methods for the synthesis of the heterocyclic ring systems, including routes inspired by the likely biosynthetic processes, and successfully assembled such building blocks into the final target molecule by application of orthogonal protecting groups and coupling methodologies.     

Sugar amino acids and related molecules: Some recent developments

To meet the growing demands for the development of new molecular entities for discovering new drugs and materials, organic chemists have started working on many new concepts that can help to assimilate knowledge-based structural diversities more efficiently than ever before. Emulating the basic principles followed by Nature to build its vast repertoire of biomolecules, organic chemists are developing many novel multifunctional building blocks and using them to create ‘nature-like’ and yet unnatural organic molecules. Sugar amino acids constitute an important class of such polyfunctional scaffolds where the carboxyl, amino and hydroxyl termini provide an excellent opportunity to organic chemists to create structural diversities akin to Nature’s molecular arsenal. In recent years, sugar amino acids have been used extensively in the area of peptidomimetic studies. Advances made in the area of combinatorial chemistry can provide the necessary technological support for rapid compilations of sugar amino acidbased libraries exploiting the diversities of their carbohydrate frameworks and well-developed solid-phase peptide synthesis methods. This perspective article chronicles some of the recent applications of various sugar amino acids, furan amino acids, pyrrole amino acids etc. and many other related building blocks in wide-ranging peptidomimetic studies     

Expanding the Genetic Code

Although chemists can synthesize virtually any small organic molecule, our ability to rationally manipulate the structures of proteins is quite limited, despite their involvement in virtually every life process. For most proteins, modifications are largely restricted to substitutions among the common 20 amino acids. Herein we describe recent advances that make it possible to add new building blocks to the genetic codes of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. Over 30 novel amino acids have been genetically encoded in response to unique triplet and quadruplet codons including fluorescent, photoreactive, and redox‐active amino acids, glycosylated amino acids, and amino acids with keto, azido, acetylenic, and heavy‐atom‐containing side chains. By removing the limitations imposed by the existing 20 amino acid code, it should be possible to generate proteins and perhaps entire organisms with new or enhanced properties.     

Direct asymmetric intermolecular aldol reactions catalyzed by amino acids and small peptides

In nature there are at least nineteen different acyclic amino acids that act as the building blocks of polypeptides and proteins with different functions. Here we report that alpha-amino acids, beta-amino acids, and chiral amines containing primary amine functions catalyze direct asymmetric intermolecular aldol reactions with high enantioselectivities. Moreover, the amino acids can be combined into highly modular natural and unusual small peptides that also catalyze direct asymmetric intermolecular aldol reactions with high stereoselectivities, to furnish the corresponding aldol products with up to >99 % ee. Simple amino acids and small peptides can thus catalyze asymmetric aldol reactions with stereoselectivities matching those of natural enzymes that have evolved over billions of years. A small amount of water accelerates the asymmetric aldol reactions catalyzed by amino acids and small peptides, and also increases their stereoselectivities. Notably, small peptides and amino acid tetrazoles were able to catalyze direct asymmetric aldol reactions with high enantioselectivities in water, while the parent amino acids, in stark contrast, furnished nearly racemic products. These results suggest that the prebiotic oligomerization of amino acids to peptides may plausibly have been a link in the evolution of the homochirality of sugars. The mechanism and stereochemistry of the reactions are also discussed.     

Folding Assessment of Incorporation of Noncanonical Amino Acids Facilitates Expansion of Functional-Group Diversity for Enzyme Engineering

Protein design is limited by the diversity of functional groups provided by the canonical protein „building blocks“. Incorporating noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) into enzymes enables a dramatic expansion of their catalytic features. For this, quick identification of fully translated and correctly folded variants is decisive. Herein, we report the engineering of the enantioselectivity of an esterase utilizing several ncAAs. Key for the identification of active and soluble protein variants was the use of the split-GFP method, which is crucial as it allows simple determination of the expression levels of enzyme variants with ncAA incorporations by fluorescence. Several identified variants led to improved enantioselectivity or even inverted enantiopreference in the kinetic resolution of ethyl 3-phenylbutyrate.     

Reprogramming the genetic code: from triplet to quadruplet codes

The genetic code of cells is near-universally triplet, and since many ribosomal mutations are lethal, changing the cellular ribosome to read nontriplet codes is challenging. Herein we review work on the incorporation of unnatural amino acids into proteins in response to quadruplet codons, and the creation of an orthogonal translation system in the cell that uses an evolved orthogonal ribosome to efficiently direct the incorporation of unnatural amino acids in response to quadruplet codons. Using this system multiple distinct unnatural amino acids have been incorporated and used to genetically program emergent properties into recombinant proteins. Extension of approaches to incorporate multiple unnatural amino acids may allow the combinatorial biosynthesis of materials and therapeutics, and drive investigations into whether life with additional genetically encoded polymers can evolve to perform functions that natural biological systems cannot.     

Nonproteinogenic Amino Acid Building Blocks for Nonribosomal Peptide and Hybrid Polyketide Scaffolds

Freestanding nonproteinogenic amino acids have long been recognized for their antimetabolite properties and tendency to be uncovered to reactive functionalities by the catalytic action of target enzymes. By installing them regiospecifically into biogenic peptides and proteins, it may be possible to usher a new era at the interface between small molecule and large molecule medicinal chemistry. Site‐selective protein functionalization offers uniquely attractive strategies for posttranslational modification of proteins. Last, but not least, many of the amino acids not selected by nature for protein incorporation offer rich architectural possibilities in the context of ribosomally derived polypeptides. This Review summarizes the biosynthetic routes to and metabolic logic for the major classes of the noncanonical amino acid building blocks that end up in both nonribosomal peptide frameworks and in hybrid nonribosomal peptide‐polyketide scaffolds.     

Peptide Nanomaterials Designed from Natural Supramolecular Systems

Natural supramolecular assemblies exhibit unique structural and functional properties that have been optimized over the course of evolution. Inspired by these natural systems, various bio‐nanomaterials have been developed using peptides, proteins, and nucleic acids as components. Peptides are attractive building blocks because they enable the important domains of natural protein assemblies to be isolated and optimized while retaining the original structures and functions. Furthermore, the peptide subunits can be conjugated with exogenous molecules such as peptides, proteins, nucleic acids, and metal nanoparticles to generate advanced functions. In this personal account, we summarize recent progress in the construction of peptide‐based nanomaterial designed from natural supramolecular systems, including (1) artificial viral capsids, (2) self‐assembled nanofibers, and (3) protein‐binding motifs. The peptides inspired by nature should provide new design principles for bio‐nanomaterials.     

Recent progress of sugar amino acids: Synthetic strategies and applications as glycomimetics and peptidomimetics

In order to meet the increasing demands for the development of large varieties of new molecules for discovering new drugs and materials, organic chemists are developing many novel multifunctional building blocks, which are assembled rationally to create ‘nature-like' and yet unnatural organic molecules with well-defined structures and useful properties. Sugar amino acids(SAAs), the carbohydrate derivatives bearing both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups, are important ones of these multifunctional building blocks, which can be used to create novel materials with potential applications as glycomimetics and peptidomimetics. This review will focus on recent synthetic strategies of SAAs and their applications in creating large number of structurally diverse glycomimetics and peptidomimetics.     

Biocatalysis with Unnatural Amino Acids: Enzymology Meets Xenobiology

The goal of xenobiology is to design biological systems endowed with unusual biochemical functions, whereas enzymology concerns the study of enzymes, the workhorses of biocatalysis. Biocatalysis employs enzymes and organisms to perform useful biotransformations in synthetic chemistry and biotechnology. During the past few years, the effects of incorporating noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) into enzymes with potential applications in biocatalysis have been increasingly investigated. In this Review, we provide an overview of the effects of new chemical functionalities that have been introduced into proteins to improve various facets of enzymatic catalysis. We also discuss future research avenues that will complement unnatural mutagenesis with standard protein engineering to produce novel and versatile biocatalysts with applications in synthetic organic chemistry and biotechnology.