Caged phospho-amino acid building blocks for solid-phase peptide synthesis

Three 1-(2-nitrophenyl)ethyl-caged phospho-amino acids have been synthesized for use in standard N(alpha)-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl-based solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS). The most common naturally occurring phospho-amino acids, serine, threonine, and tyrosine, were prepared as protected caged building blocks by modification with a unique phosphitylating reagent. In previous work, caged phospho-peptides were made using an interassembly approach (Rothman, D. M.; Vazquez, M. E.; Vogel, E. M.; Imperiali, B. Org. Lett. 2002, 4, 2865-2868). However, this technique is limited to creating peptides without oxidation sensitive residues C-terminal to the amino acid to be modified and the methodology involves synthetic manipulations on the solid phase that may limit the utilization of the methodology. Herein we report the facile synthesis of N-alpha-Fmoc-phospho(1-nitrophenylethyl-2-cyanoethyl)-L-serine 1, N-alpha-Fmoc-phospho(1-nitrophenylethyl-2-cyanoethyl)-L-threonine 2, and N-alpha-Fmoc-phospho(1-nitrophenylethyl-2-cyanoethyl)-L-tyrosine 3. These building blocks allow the synthesis of any caged phospho-peptide sequence using standard Fmoc-based SPPS procedures.     

Substrate specificity of the glycosyl donor for oligosaccharyl transferase

Oligosaccharyl transferase (OT) catalyzes the co-translational transfer of a dolichol-linked tetradecasaccharide (Dol-PP-GlcNAc(2)Man(9)Glc(3), 1a) to an asparagine side chain of a nascent polypeptide inside the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The glycosyl acceptor requires an Asn-Xaa-Thr/Ser sequon, where Xaa can be any natural amino acid except proline, for N-linked glycosylation to occur. To address the substrate specificity of the glycosyl donor, three unnatural dolichol-linked disaccharide analogues (Dol-PP-GlcNTFA-GlcNAc 1c, Dol-PP-2DFGlc-GlcNAc 1d, and Dol-PP-GlcNAc-Glc 1e) were synthesized and evaluated as substrates or inhibitors for OT from yeast. The synthetic analogue Dol-PP-GlcNAc-Glc 1e, with substitution in the distal sugar, was found to be a substrate (K(m)(app)() = 26 microM) for OT. On the other hand, the analogues Dol-PP-GlcNTFA-GlcNAc 1c (K(i) = 154 microM) and Dol-PP-2DFGlc-GlcNAc 1d (K(i) = 252 microM), with variations in the proximal sugar, were inhibitors for OT. The dolichol-linked monosaccharide Dol-PP-GlcNAc 3 was found to be the minimum unit for glycosylation to occur.     

Investigating bacterial N-linked glycosylation: synthesis and glycosyl acceptor activity of the undecaprenyl pyrophosphate-linked bacillosamine

The chemical synthesis and biological activity of undecaprenyl pyrophosphate bacillosamine (Und-PP-Bac), an obligatory intermediate in the asparagine-linked glycosylation pathway of Campylobacter jejuni, are reported. The key transformation involves the coupling of bacillosamine phosphate and undecaprenyl phosphate. The synthetic Und-PP-Bac can be used to investigate the activity of the enzyme PglA, which catalyzes the first glycosyl transfer in substrate biosynthesis for N-linked protein glycosylation in the pathogenic gram-negative bacterium. The availability of this synthetic substrate makes it possible to access polyprenyl-linked oligosaccharides, such as the GalNAc-alpha-1,3-bacillosamine-alpha-1-PP-Und intermediate, that will enable exploration of the remaining enzymes in the prokaryotic glycosylation pathway. Study of the bacterial glycosylation system will provide insight into the corresponding eukaryotic process, which is currently poorly understood.     

Oligomerization of uniquely folded mini-protein motifs: development of a homotrimeric betabetaalpha peptide.

The discovery of a discretely folded homotrimeric betabetaalpha motif (BBAT1) was recently reported (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 1002-1003). Herein the design, synthesis, and analysis of a small library of peptides which led to the isolation of BBAT1 is described. betabetaalpha peptides based on the monomeric sequence of BBA5 (Folding Des. 1998, 120, 95-103) were synthesized to include the anthranilic acid/nitrotyrosine fluorescence quenching pair to rapidly detect interpeptide association. In the first generation of peptides synthesized, truncations in the loop region connecting the beta-hairpin to the alpha-helix revealed that a two-residue deletion in the loop promoted an interpeptide association as detected by fluorescence quenching. An additional library of 22 loop-truncated betabetaalpha peptides was subsequently synthesized to include a variety of sequence mutations in an effort to enhance the observed peptide-peptide binding. From the fluorescence quenching screen, peptide B2 was found to possess the strongest fluorescence-quenching response, indicative of a strong peptide-peptide association. Due the poor solubility of peptide B2, the S-methylated cysteine at position 9 in the loop was substituted with a glycine to generate peptide BBAT1 which possessed greatly improved water solubility and formed discrete trimers. The successful design of this oligomeric betabetaalpha structure will likely aid the design of more complex alpha-beta superstructures and further our understanding of the factors controlling protein-protein interactions at alpha-beta protein interfaces.