scholarly journals An engineered bacterium auxotrophic for an unnatural amino acid: a novel biological containment system

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuke Kato
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Culture Medium ◽  
Stop Codon ◽  
Unnatural Amino Acid ◽  
Biological Containment ◽  
Containment System ◽  
Genetic Technique ◽  
Colicin E3 ◽  
Host Killing

Biological containment is a genetic technique to program dangerous organisms to grow only in the laboratory and to die in the natural environment. Auxotropy for a substance not found in the natural environment is an ideal biological containment. Here, we constructed an Escherichia coli strain that cannot survive in the absence of the unnatural amino acid 3-iodo-L-tyrosine. This synthetic auxotrophy was achieved by conditional production of the antidote protein against the highly toxic enzyme colicin E3. An amber stop codon was inserted in the antidote gene. The translation of the antidote mRNA was controlled by a translational switch using amber-specific 3-iodo-L-tyrosine incorporation. The antidote is synthesized only when 3-iodo-L-tyrosine is present in the culture medium. The viability of this strain rapidly decreased with less than a 1 h half-life after removal of 3-iodo-L-tyrosine, suggesting that the decay of the antidote causes the host killing by activated colicin E3 in the absence of this unnatural amino acid. This containment system can be constructed by only plasmid introduction without genome editing, suggesting that this system may be applicable to other microbes carrying toxin-antidote systems similar to that of colicin E3.

scholarly journals An engineered bacterium auxotrophic for an unnatural amino acid: a novel biological containment system

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuke Kato
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Culture Medium ◽  
Stop Codon ◽  
Unnatural Amino Acid ◽  
Biological Containment ◽  
Containment System ◽  
Genetic Technique ◽  
Colicin E3 ◽  
Host Killing

Biological containment is a genetic technique to program dangerous organisms to grow only in the laboratory and to die in the natural environment. Auxotropy for a substance not found in the natural environment is an ideal biological containment. Here, we constructed an Escherichia coli strain that cannot survive in the absence of the unnatural amino acid 3-iodo-L-tyrosine. This synthetic auxotrophy was achieved by conditional production of the antidote protein against the highly toxic enzyme colicin E3. An amber stop codon was inserted in the antidote gene. The translation of the antidote mRNA was controlled by a translational switch using amber-specific 3-iodo-L-tyrosine incorporation. The antidote is synthesized only when 3-iodo-L-tyrosine is present in the culture medium. The viability of this strain rapidly decreased with less than a 1 h half-life after removal of 3-iodo-L-tyrosine, suggesting that the decay of the antidote causes the host killing by activated colicin E3 in the absence of this unnatural amino acid. This containment system can be constructed by only plasmid introduction without genome editing, suggesting that this system may be applicable to other microbes carrying toxin-antidote systems similar to that of colicin E3.

An Unnatural Amino Acid that Mimics a Tripeptide β-Strand and Forms β-Sheetlike Hydrogen-Bonded Dimers [J. Am. Chem. Soc.2000,122, 7654-7661]. 

2001 ◽  
Vol 123 (7) ◽  
pp. 1545-1546
Author(s):  
James S. Nowick ◽  
De Michael Chung ◽  
Kalyani Maitra ◽  
Santanu Maitra ◽  
Kimberly D. Stigers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Unnatural Amino Acid ◽  
Hydrogen Bonded

scholarly journals A biallelic variant in CLRN2 causes non-syndromic hearing loss in humans

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Vona ◽  
Neda Mazaheri ◽  
Sheng-Jia Lin ◽  
Lucy A. Dunbar ◽  
Reza Maroofian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Rna Splicing ◽  
Stop Codon ◽  
Missense Variant ◽  
Homozygosity Mapping ◽  
Deafness Gene ◽  
Expression Studies ◽  
Hearing Function

AbstractDeafness, the most frequent sensory deficit in humans, is extremely heterogeneous with hundreds of genes involved. Clinical and genetic analyses of an extended consanguineous family with pre-lingual, moderate-to-profound autosomal recessive sensorineural hearing loss, allowed us to identify CLRN2, encoding a tetraspan protein, as a new deafness gene. Homozygosity mapping followed by exome sequencing identified a 14.96 Mb locus on chromosome 4p15.32p15.1 containing a likely pathogenic missense variant in CLRN2 (c.494C > A, NM_001079827.2) segregating with the disease. Using in vitro RNA splicing analysis, we show that the CLRN2 c.494C > A variant leads to two events: (1) the substitution of a highly conserved threonine (uncharged amino acid) to lysine (charged amino acid) at position 165, p.(Thr165Lys), and (2) aberrant splicing, with the retention of intron 2 resulting in a stop codon after 26 additional amino acids, p.(Gly146Lysfs*26). Expression studies and phenotyping of newly produced zebrafish and mouse models deficient for clarin 2 further confirm that clarin 2, expressed in the inner ear hair cells, is essential for normal organization and maintenance of the auditory hair bundles, and for hearing function. Together, our findings identify CLRN2 as a new deafness gene, which will impact future diagnosis and treatment for deaf patients.

Nγ‐Hydroxyasparagine: a Multifunctional Unnatural Amino Acid That is a Good P1 Substrate of Asparaginyl Peptide Ligases

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuan-Fa Liu ◽  
Yiyin Xia ◽  
Janet To ◽  
Ning-Yu Chan ◽  
Side Hu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Unnatural Amino Acid

scholarly journals Transferability of N-terminal mutations of pyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase in one species to that in another species on unnatural amino acid incorporation efficiency

Amino Acids ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas L. Williams ◽  
Debra J. Iskandar ◽  
Alexander R. Nödling ◽  
Yurong Tan ◽  
Louis Y. P. Luk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Genetic Code ◽  
Unnatural Amino Acids ◽  
Trna Synthetase ◽  
Unnatural Amino Acid ◽  
Amino Acid Incorporation ◽  
Acid Incorporation ◽  
Genetic Code Expansion ◽  
Incorporation Efficiency

AbstractGenetic code expansion is a powerful technique for site-specific incorporation of an unnatural amino acid into a protein of interest. This technique relies on an orthogonal aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA pair and has enabled incorporation of over 100 different unnatural amino acids into ribosomally synthesized proteins in cells. Pyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase (PylRS) and its cognate tRNA from Methanosarcina species are arguably the most widely used orthogonal pair. Here, we investigated whether beneficial effect in unnatural amino acid incorporation caused by N-terminal mutations in PylRS of one species is transferable to PylRS of another species. It was shown that conserved mutations on the N-terminal domain of MmPylRS improved the unnatural amino acid incorporation efficiency up to five folds. As MbPylRS shares high sequence identity to MmPylRS, and the two homologs are often used interchangeably, we examined incorporation of five unnatural amino acids by four MbPylRS variants at two temperatures. Our results indicate that the beneficial N-terminal mutations in MmPylRS did not improve unnatural amino acid incorporation efficiency by MbPylRS. Knowledge from this work contributes to our understanding of PylRS homologs which are needed to improve the technique of genetic code expansion in the future.

scholarly journals A rare large duplication of MLH1 identified in Lynch syndrome

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhishek Kumar ◽  
Nagarajan Paramasivam ◽  
Obul Reddy Bandapalli ◽  
Matthias Schlesner ◽  
Tianhui Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Lynch Syndrome ◽  
Splice Site ◽  
Stop Codon ◽  
Premature Stop Codon ◽  
Splice Donor Site ◽  
Laboratory Diagnostics ◽  
Mmr Genes ◽  
Base Pair Deletion ◽  
Splice Site Variant

Abstract Background The most frequently identified strong cancer predisposition mutations for colorectal cancer (CRC) are those in the mismatch repair (MMR) genes in Lynch syndrome. Laboratory diagnostics include testing tumors for immunohistochemical staining (IHC) of the Lynch syndrome-associated DNA MMR proteins and/or for microsatellite instability (MSI) followed by sequencing or other techniques, such as denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC), to identify the mutation. Methods In an ongoing project focusing on finding Mendelian cancer syndromes we applied whole-exome/whole-genome sequencing (WES/WGS) to 19 CRC families. Results Three families were identified with a pathogenic/likely pathogenic germline variant in a MMR gene that had previously tested negative in DHPLC gene variant screening. All families had a history of CRC in several family members across multiple generations. Tumor analysis showed loss of the MMR protein IHC staining corresponding to the mutated genes, as well as MSI. In family A, a structural variant, a duplication of exons 4 to 13, was identified in MLH1. The duplication was predicted to lead to a frameshift at amino acid 520 and a premature stop codon at amino acid 539. In family B, a 1 base pair deletion was found in MLH1, resulting in a frameshift and a stop codon at amino acid 491. In family C, we identified a splice site variant in MSH2, which was predicted to lead loss of a splice donor site. Conclusions We identified altogether three pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants in the MMR genes in three of the 19 sequenced families. The MLH1 variants, a duplication of exons 4 to 13 and a frameshift variant, were novel, based on the InSiGHT and ClinVar databases; the MSH2 splice site variant was reported by a single submitter in ClinVar. As a variant class, duplications have rarely been reported in the MMR gene literature, particularly those covering several exons.

ChemInform Abstract: Synthesis of a New Unnatural Amino Acid with a Benzodiazepine- Containing Side Chain and Incorporation into a Tripeptide.

ChemInform ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. no-no
Author(s):  
J. MULZER ◽  
F. SCHROEDER ◽  
A. LOBBIA ◽  
J. BUSCHMANN ◽  
P. LUGER
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Unnatural Amino Acid ◽  
Side Chain
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