Incorporation of Non‐canonical Amino Acids into 2,5‐Diketopiperazines by Cyclodipeptide Synthases

The manipulation of natural product biosynthetic pathways is a powerful means of expanding the chemical diversity of bioactive molecules. 2,5‐diketopiperazines (2,5‐DKPs) have been widely developed by medicinal chemists, but their biological production is yet to be exploited. We introduce an in vivo method for incorporating non‐canonical amino acids (ncAAs) into 2,5‐DKPs using cyclodipeptide synthases (CDPSs), the enzymes responsible for scaffold assembly in many 2,5‐DKP biosynthetic pathways. CDPSs use aminoacyl‐tRNAs as substrates. We exploited the natural ability of aminoacyl‐tRNA synthetases to load ncAAs onto tRNAs. We found 26 ncAAs to be usable as substrates by CDPSs, leading to the enzymatic production of approximately 200 non‐canonical cyclodipeptides. CDPSs constitute an efficient enzymatic tool for the synthesis of highly diverse 2,5‐DKPs. Such diversity could be further expanded, for example, by using various cyclodipeptide‐tailoring enzymes found in 2,5‐DKP biosynthetic pathways.     

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.     

Engineered Biocatalytic Synthesis of β-N-Substituted-α-Amino Acids

Non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) are useful synthons for the development of new medicines, materials, and probes for bioactivity. Recently, enzyme engineering has been leveraged to produce a suite of highly active enzymes for the synthesis of β-substituted amino acids. However, there are few examples of biocatalytic N-substitution reactions to make α,β-diamino acids. In this study, we used directed evolution to engineer the β-subunit of tryptophan synthase, TrpB, for improved activity with diverse amine nucleophiles. Mechanistic analysis shows that high yields are hindered by product re-entry into the catalytic cycle and subsequent decomposition. Additional equivalents of l -serine can inhibit product reentry through kinetic competition, facilitating preparative scale synthesis. We show β-substitution with a dozen aryl amine nucleophiles, including demonstration on a gram scale. These transformations yield an underexplored class of amino acids that can serve as unique building blocks for chemical biology and medicinal chemistry.     

Explorations of catalytic domains in non-ribosomal peptide synthetase enzymology

Covering up to the end of 2011Many pharmaceuticals on the market today belong to a large class of natural products called nonribosomal peptides (NRPs). Originating from bacteria and fungi, these peptide-based natural products consist not only of the 20 canonical l-amino acids, but also non-proteinogenic amino acids, heterocyclic rings, sugars, and fatty acids, generating tremendous chemical diversity. As a result, these secondary metabolites exhibit a broad array of bioactivity, ranging from antimicrobial to anticancer. The biosynthesis of these complex compounds is carried out by large multimodular megaenzymes called nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs). Each module is responsible for incorporation of a monomeric unit into the natural product peptide and is composed of individual domains that perform different catalytic reactions. Biochemical and bioinformatic investigations of these enzymes have uncovered the key principles of NRP synthesis, expanding the pharmaceutical potential of their enzymatic processes. Progress has been made in the manipulation of this biosynthetic machinery to develop new chemoenzymatic approaches for synthesizing novel pharmaceutical agents with increased potency. This review focuses on the recent discoveries and breakthroughs in the structural elucidation, molecular mechanism, and chemical biology underlying the discrete domains within NRPSs.     

Repurposing Iron- and 2-Oxoglutarate-Dependent Oxygenases to Catalyze Olefin Hydration

Mononuclear nonheme iron(II) and 2-oxoglutarate (Fe/2OG)-dependent oxygenases and halogenases are known to catalyze a diverse set of oxidative reactions, including hydroxylation, halogenation, epoxidation, and desaturation in primary metabolism and natural product maturation. However, their use in abiotic transformations has mainly been limited to C−H oxidation. Herein, we show that various enzymes of this family, when reconstituted with Fe(II) or Fe(III), can catalyze Mukaiyama hydration—a redox neutral transformation. Distinct from the native reactions of the Fe/2OG enzymes, wherein oxygen atom transfer (OAT) catalyzed by an iron-oxo species is involved, this nonnative transformation proceeds through a hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) pathway in a 2OG-independent manner. Additionally, in contrast to conventional inorganic catalysts, wherein a dinuclear iron species is responsible for HAT, the Fe/2OG enzymes exploit a mononuclear iron center to support this reaction. Collectively, our work demonstrates that Fe/2OG enzymes have utility in catalysis beyond the current scope of catalytic oxidation.     

Recent developments in the catalytic asymmetric synthesis of alpha- and beta-amino acids

The stereoselective synthesis of amino acids is of great importance for the construction of optically active natural products and pharmaceuticals. Apart from enzymes, a broad repertoire of chiral reagents, auxiliaries, and catalysts can be used for the formation of amino acids. Asymmetric reactions using catalytic amounts of chiral molecules provide efficient methods for the generation of optically active proteinogenic and nonproteinogenic amino acids. This minireview collects recent work on catalytic asymmetric synthesis of alpha- and beta-amino acids.     

Biochemical analysis with the expanded genetic lexicon

The information used to build proteins is stored in the genetic material of every organism. In nature, ribosomes use 20 native amino acids to synthesize proteins in most circumstances. However, laboratory efforts to expand the genetic repertoire of living cells and organisms have successfully encoded more than 80 nonnative amino acids in E. coli, yeast, and other eukaryotic systems. The selectivity, fidelity, and site-specificity provided by the technology have enabled unprecedented flexibility in manipulating protein sequences and functions in cells. Various biophysical probes can be chemically conjugated or directly incorporated at specific residues in proteins, and corresponding analytical techniques can then be used to answer diverse biological questions. This review summarizes the methodology of genetic code expansion and its recent progress, and discusses the applications of commonly used analytical methods.     

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.     

Biosynthetic approach to modeling and understanding metalloproteins using unnatural amino acids

Metalloproteins have inspired chemists for many years to synthesize artificial catalysts that mimic native enzymes.As a complementary approach to studying native enzymes or making synthetic models,biosynthetic approach using small and stable proteins to model native enzymes has offered advantages of incorporating non-covalent secondary sphere interactions under physiological conditions.However,most biosynthetic models are restricted to natural amino acids.To overcome this limitation,incorporating unnatural amino acids into the biosynthetic models has shown promises.In this review,we summarize first synthetic,semisynthetic and biological methods of incorporates unnatural amino acids(UAAs)into proteins,followed by progress made in incorporating UAAs into both native metalloproteins and their biosynthetic models to fine-tune functional properties beyond native enzymes or their variants containing natural amino acids,such as reduction potentials of azurin,O_2 reduction rates and percentages of product formation of HCO models in Mb,the rate of radical transport in ribonucleotide reductase(RNR)and the proton and electron transfer pathways in photosystemⅡ(PSⅡ).We also discuss how this endeavour has allowed systematic investigations of precise roles of conserved residues in metalloproteins,such as Metl21 in azurin,Tyr244 that is cross-linked to one of the three His ligands to CuB in HCO,Tyr122,356,730 and 731 in RNR and TyrZ in PSⅡ.These examples have demonstrated that incorporating UAAs has provided a new dimension in our efforts to mimic native enzymes and in providing deeper insights into structural features responsible high enzymatic activity and reaction mechanisms,making it possible to design highly efficient artificial catalysts with similar or even higher activity than native enzymes.     

Synthesis and Evaluation of Novel Ring-Strained Noncanonical Amino Acids for Residue-Specific Bioorthogonal Reactions in Living Cells

Bioorthogonal reactions are ideally suited to selectively modify proteins in complex environments, even in vivo. Kinetics and product stability of these reactions are crucial parameters to evaluate their usefulness for specific applications. Strain promoted inverse electron demand Diels–Alder cycloadditions (SPIEDAC) between tetrazines and strained alkenes or alkynes are particularly popular, as they allow ultrafast labeling inside cells. In combination with genetic code expansion (GCE)-a method that allows to incorporate noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) site-specifically into proteins in vivo. These reactions enable residue-specific fluorophore attachment to proteins in living mammalian cells. Several SPIEDAC capable ncAAs have been presented and studied under diverse conditions, revealing different instabilities ranging from educt decomposition to product loss due to β-elimination. To identify which compounds yield the best labeling inside living mammalian cells has frequently been difficult. In this study we present a) the synthesis of four new SPIEDAC reactive ncAAs that cannot undergo β-elimination and b) a fluorescence flow cytometry based FRET-assay to measure reaction kinetics inside living cells. Our results, which at first sight can be seen conflicting with some other studies, capture GCE-specific experimental conditions, such as long-term exposure of the ring-strained ncAA to living cells, that are not taken into account in other assays.     

Room temperature ionic liquids from 20 natural amino acids

We first succeeded in synthesizing ionic liquids from 20 natural amino acids. Amino acid ionic liquids dissolved native amino acids, despite water-free conditions. Furthermore, these ionic liquids are soluble in various organic solvents, such as chloroform. Effects of acidity, hydrogen bonding ability, and steric factors on the properties of these ionic liquids were analyzed as the function of side groups.     

Chiral Ferrocenyl Amino Alcohols：Preparation and Application as Catalysts in the Enantioselective Reduction of Ketones Using NaBH4／I2

Five novel chiral ferrocenyl amino alcohols were prepared from natural amino acids and used as catalysts in the asymmetric reduction of prochiral ketones with NaBH4/I2 combination.The incorporation of the ferrocenyl moiety into the molecule of the chiral amino alcohols greatly improved their enantioselectivity in the catalysis.The optically active secondary alcohols were obt5ained in moderate to good enantiomeric excesses and high chemical yields.     

In-situ nanoelectrospray for high-throughput screening of enzymes and real-time monitoring of reactions

The in-situ and high-throughput evaluation of enzymes and real-time monitoring of enzyme catalyzed reactions in liquid phase is quite significant in the catalysis industry. In-situ nanoelectrospray, the direct sampling and ionization method for mass spectrometry, has been applied for high-throughput evaluation of enzymes, as well as the on-line monitoring of reactions. Simply inserting a capillary into a liquid system with high-voltage applied, analytes in liquid reaction system can be directly ionized at the capillary tip with small volume consumption. With no sample pre-treatment or injection procedure, different analytes such as saccharides, amino acids, alkaloids, peptides and proteins can be rapidly and directly extracted from liquid phase and ionized at the capillary tip. Taking irreversible transesterification reaction of vinyl acetate and ethanol as an example, this technique has been used for the high-throughput evaluation of enzymes, fast optimizations, as well as real-time monitoring of reaction catalyzed by different enzymes. In addition, it is even softer than traditional electrospray ionization. The present method can also be used for the monitoring of other homogenous and heterogeneous reactions in liquid phases, which will show potentials in the catalysis industry.     

Recent developments in peptide ligation independent of amino acid side-chain functional group

Chemical synthesis of peptides and proteins has evolved into an indispensable tool for chemical biology. Peptide ligation is a straightforward technique for joining two short peptide fragments together via a native peptide bond to afford a larger natural peptide or protein. However, the junction sites are limited to several specific amino acids because most peptide ligations involve participation of the side-chain functional groups of the junction-site amino acids. To overcome such intrinsic limitations, “general” peptide ligations which do not rely on the side-chain functional group have been developed. This review summarized the recent developments in peptide ligations that are independent of side-chain functional group of ligation-junction-site amino acid.     

NMR identification of transient complexes critical to adenylate kinase catalysis

A fundamental question in protein chemistry is how the native energy landscape of enzymes enables efficient catalysis of chemical reactions. Adenylate kinase is a small monomeric enzyme that catalyzes the reversible conversion of AMP and ATP into two ADP molecules. Previous structural studies have revealed that substrate binding is accompanied by large rate-limiting spatial displacements of both the ATP and AMP binding motifs. In this report a solution-state NMR approach was used to probe the native energy landscape of adenylate kinase in its free form, in complex with its natural substrates, and in the presence of a tight binding inhibitor. Binding of ATP induces a dynamic equilibrium in which the ATP binding motif populates both the open and the closed conformations with almost equal populations. A similar scenario is observed for AMP binding, which induces an equilibrium between open and closed conformations of the AMP binding motif. These ATP- and AMP-bound structural ensembles represent complexes that exist transiently during catalysis. Simultaneous binding of AMP and ATP is required to force both substrate binding motifs to close cooperatively. In addition, a previously unknown unidirectional energetic coupling between the ATP and AMP binding sites was discovered. On the basis of these and previous results, we propose that adenylate kinase belongs to a group of enzymes whose substrates act to shift pre-existing equilibria toward catalytically active states.     

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.     

Amines as Catalysts: Dynamic Features and Kinetic Control of Catalytic Asymmetric Chemical Transformations to Form C−C Bonds and Complex Molecules

Carbonyl transformations involving enolates and/or enamines have been used for various types of bond-forming reactions. In this account, catalysts and catalyst systems that have amino acids or primary, secondary, and/or tertiary amines as key catalytic functional groups that we have developed to accelerate chemical transformations, including regio-, diastereo- and enantioselective reactions, are discussed. Our chemical transformation strategies and methods that use amine derivatives as catalysts are also discussed. As amines can have different functions depending on protonation and on the species formed during the catalysis (such as enamines and iminium ions), dynamics and kinetic controls are the keys for understanding the catalysis. Further, strategies that harness dynamic steps and kinetic control in amine-catalyzed reactions have enabled the synthesis of complex molecules in stereocontrolled manners. Understanding the dynamic features and the kinetic controls of the catalysis will further the design of the catalysts and the development of chemical transformation strategies and methods.     

Catalytic hydrogenation of glutamic acid

Technology to convert biomass into chemical building blocks provides an opportunity to displace fossil fuels and increase the economic viability of biorefineries. Coupling fermentation capability with aqueous-phase catalysis provides novel routes to monomers and chemicals, including those not accessible from petrochemical routes. Glutamic acid provides a platform to numerous compounds through thermochemical approaches including hydrogenation, cyclization, decarboxylation, and deamination. Hydrogenation of amino acids also provides access to chiral compounds with high enantiopurity. This article detals aqueous-phase hydrogenation reactions that we have developed that lead to valuable chemical intermediates from glutamic acid. In addition, ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectral data are presented that provide a mechanistic picture of the reactions. The results show that hydrogenation of glutamic acid has unique characteristics from other amino acids and that paradigms in the literature do not hold up for this transformation.     

Selecting Better Biocatalysts by Complementing Recoded Bacteria**

In vivo selections are powerful tools for the directed evolution of enzymes. However, the need to link enzymatic activity to cellular survival makes selections for enzymes that do not fulfill a metabolic function challenging. Here, we present an in vivo selection strategy that leverages recoded organisms addicted to non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) to evolve biocatalysts that can provide these building blocks from synthetic precursors. We exemplify our platform by engineering carbamoylases that display catalytic efficiencies more than five orders of magnitude higher than those observed for the wild-type enzyme for ncAA-precursors. As growth rates of bacteria under selective conditions correlate with enzymatic activities, we were able to elicit improved variants from populations by performing serial passaging. By requiring minimal human intervention and no specialized equipment, we surmise that our strategy will become a versatile tool for the in vivo directed evolution of diverse biocatalysts.     

A Strategy for Creating Organisms Dependent on Noncanonical Amino Acids

The use of noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) to control the viability of an organism provides a strategy for the development of conditional “kill switches” for live vaccines or engineered human cells. We report an approach inspired by the posttranslational acetylation/deacetylation of lysine residues, in which a protein encoded by a gene with an in‐frame nonsense codon at an essential lysine can be expressed in its native state only upon genetic incorporation of N ‐ϵ ‐acetyl‐l ‐Lys (AcK), and subsequent enzymatic deacetylation in the host cell. We applied this strategy to two essential E. coli enzymes: the branched‐chain aminotransferase BCAT and the DNA replication initiator protein DnaA. We also devised a barnase‐based conditional suicide switch to further lower the escape frequency of the host cells. This strategy offers a number of attractive features for controlling host viability, including a single small‐molecule‐based kill switch, low escape frequency, and unaffected protein function.