Journal of the American Chemical Society 2010-10-27

Expanding the genetic code of yeast for incorporation of diverse unnatural amino acids via a pyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA pair.

Susan M Hancock, Rajendra Uprety, Alexander Deiters, Jason W Chin

Index: J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132 , 14819-14824, (2010)

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Abstract

We report the discovery of a simple system through which variant pyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA(CUA Pyl) pairs created in Escherichia coli can be used to expand the genetic code of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In the process we have solved the key challenges of producing a functional tRNA(CUA Pyl) in yeast and discovered a pyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA(CUA Pyl) pair that is orthogonal in yeast. Using our approach we have incorporated an alkyne-containing amino acid for click chemistry, an important post-translationally modified amino acid and one of its analogs, a photocaged amino acid and a photo-cross-linking amino acid into proteins in yeast. Extensions of our approach will allow the growing list of useful amino acids that have been incorporated in E. coli with variant pyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA(CUA Pyl) pairs to be site-specifically incorporated into proteins in yeast.