scholarly journals Evolving Bacterial Fitness with an Expanded Genetic Code

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Drew S. Tack ◽  
Austin C. Cole ◽  
R. Shroff ◽  
B.R. Morrow ◽  
Andrew D. Ellington
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Genetic Code ◽  
Unnatural Amino Acid ◽  
Noncanonical Amino Acids ◽  
Bacterial Fitness ◽  
Genetic Code Expansion ◽  
Encoding Strategy ◽  
Translation Systems ◽  
Expanded Genetic Code

AbstractEvolution has for the most part used the canonical 20 amino acids of the natural genetic code to construct proteins. While several theories regarding the evolution of the genetic code have been proposed, experimental exploration of these theories has largely been restricted to phylogenetic and computational modeling. The development of orthogonal translation systems has allowed noncanonical amino acids to be inserted at will into proteins. We have taken advantage of these advances to evolve bacteria to accommodate a 21 amino acid genetic code in which the amber codon ambiguously encodes either 3-nitro-L-tyrosine or stop. Such an ambiguous encoding strategy recapitulates numerous models for genetic code expansion, and we find that evolved lineages first accommodate the unnatural amino acid, and then begin to evolve on a neutral landscape where stop codons begin to appear within genes. The resultant lines represent transitional intermediates on the way to the fixation of a functional 21 amino acid code.

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 High-throughput aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase engineering for genetic code expansion in yeast

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica T. Stieglitz ◽  
James A. Van Deventer
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Code ◽  
High Throughput ◽  
Trna Synthetase ◽  
Noncanonical Amino Acids ◽  
Trna Synthetases ◽  
E Coli ◽  
Biological Studies ◽  
Screening Strategies ◽  
Genetic Code Expansion ◽  
Translation Systems

Protein expression with genetically encoded noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) benefits a broad range of applications, from the discovery of biological therapeutics to fundamental biological studies. A major factor limiting the use of ncAAs is the lack of orthogonal translation systems (OTSs) that support efficient genetic code expansion at repurposed stop codons. Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) have been extensively evolved in E. coli but are not always orthogonal in eukaryotes. In this work, we use a yeast display-based ncAA incorporation reporter platform with fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to screen libraries of aaRSs in high throughput for 1) incorporation of ncAAs not previously encoded in yeast; 2) improvement of the performance of an existing aaRS; 3) highly selective OTSs capable of discriminating between closely related ncAA analogs; and 4) OTSs exhibiting enhanced polyspecificity to support translation with structurally diverse sets of ncAAs. The number of previously undiscovered aaRS variants we report in this work more than doubles the total number of translationally active aaRSs available for genetic code manipulation in yeast. The success of myriad screening strategies has important implications related to the fundamental properties and evolvability of aaRSs. Furthermore, access to OTSs with diverse activities and specific/polyspecific properties are invaluable for a range of applications within chemical biology, synthetic biology, and protein engineering.

scholarly journals Engineering RNA viruses with unnatural amino acid to evoke adjustable immune response in mice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhetao Zheng ◽  
Yu Wang ◽  
Xuesheng Wu ◽  
Haoran Zhang ◽  
Hongmin Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune Response ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Genetic Code ◽  
Rna Viruses ◽  
Enterovirus 71 ◽  
Unnatural Amino Acid ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Strong Immune Response ◽  
Genetic Code Expansion ◽  
Dose Dependent

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses pose heavy burdens on public-health systems. Synthetic biology holds great potential for artificially controlling their replication, a strategy that could be used to attenuate infectious viruses but is still in the exploratory stage. Herein, we used the genetic-code expansion technique to convert Enterovirus 71 (EV71), a model of RNA virus, into a controllable EV71 strain carrying the unnatural amino acid (UAA) Nε-2-azidoethyloxycarbonyl-L-lysine (NAEK), which we termed an EV71-NAEK virus. EV71-NAEK could recapitulate an authentic NAEK time- and dose-dependent infection in vitro and in vivo, which could serve as a novel method to manipulate virulent viruses in conventional laboratories. We further validated the prophylactic effect of EV71-NAEK in two mouse models. In susceptible parent mice, vaccination with EV71-NAEK elicited a strong immune response and potentially protected their neonatal offspring from lethal challenge similar to that of commercial vaccines. Meanwhile, in transgenic mice harboring a PylRS-tRNAPyl CUA pair, substantial elements of genetic-code expansion technology, EV71-NAEK evoked an adjustable neutralizing-antibody response in a strictly external NAEK dose-dependent manner. These findings suggested that EV71-NAEK could be the basis of a feasible immunization program for populations with different levels of immunity. Moreover, we expanded the strategy to generate controllable coxsackieviruses and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) for conceptual verification. In combination, these results could underlie a competent strategy for attenuating viruses and priming the immune system via artificial control, which might be a promising direction for the development of amenable vaccine candidates and be broadly applied to other RNA viruses.

scholarly journals Sterilization of drug-resistant influenza virus through genetic interference: use of unnatural amino acid-engineered virions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuesheng Wu ◽  
Zhetao Zheng ◽  
Hongmin Chen ◽  
Haishuang Lin ◽  
Yuelin Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Influenza Virus ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Genetic Code ◽  
Unnatural Amino Acids ◽  
Influenza A ◽  
Antiviral Agent ◽  
Unnatural Amino Acid ◽  
Drug Resistant ◽  
Genetic Code Expansion

AbstractThe frequent emergence of drug resistance during the treatment of influenza A virus (IAV) infections highlights a need for effective antiviral countermeasures. Here, we present an antiviral method that utilizes unnatural amino acid-engineered drug-resistant (UAA-DR) virus. The engineered virus is generated through genetic code expansion to combat emerging drug-resistant viruses. The UAA-DR virus has unnatural amino acids incorporated into its drug-resistant protein and its polymerase complex for replication control. The engineered virus can undergo genomic segment reassortment with normal virus and produce sterilized progenies due to artificial amber codons in the viral genome. We validate in vitro that UAA-DR can provide a broad-spectrum antiviral strategy for several H1N1 strains, different DR-IAV strains, multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains, and even antigenically distant influenza strains (e.g., H3N2). Moreover, a minimum dose of neuraminidase (NA) inhibitors for influenza virus can further enhance the sterilizing effect when combating inhibitor-resistant strains, partly due to the promoted superinfection of unnatural amino acid-modified virus in cellular and animal models. We also exploited the engineered virus to achieve adjustable efficacy after external UAA administration, for mitigating DR virus infection on transgenic mice harboring the pair, and to have substantial elements of the genetic code expansion technology, which further demonstrated the safety and feasibility of the strategy. We anticipate that the use of the UAA-engineered DR virion, which is a novel antiviral agent, could be extended to combat emerging drug-resistant influenza virus and other segmented RNA viruses.

scholarly journals Reporter system architecture affects measurements of noncanonical amino acid incorporation efficiency and fidelity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.A. Potts ◽  
J.T. Stieglitz ◽  
M. Lei ◽  
J.A. Van Deventer
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Genetic Code ◽  
Fluorescent Protein ◽  
Protein Translation ◽  
Chemical Diversity ◽  
Reporter System ◽  
Noncanonical Amino Acids ◽  
Genetic Codes ◽  
Incorporation Efficiency

AbstractThe ability to genetically encode noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) within proteins supports a growing number of applications ranging from fundamental biological studies to enhancing the properties of biological therapeutics. Currently, our quantitative understanding of ncAA incorporation systems is confounded by the diverse set of characterization and analysis approaches used to quantify ncAA incorporation events. While several effective reporter systems support such measurements, it is not clear how quantitative results from different reporters relate to one another, or which details influence measurements most strongly. Here, we evaluate the quantitative performance of single-fluorescent protein reporters, dual-fluorescent protein reporters, and cell surface displayed protein reporters of ncAA insertion in response to the TAG (amber) codon in yeast. While different reporters support varying levels of apparent readthough efficiencies, flow cytometry-based evaluations with dual reporters yielded measurements exhibiting consistent quantitative trends and precision across all evaluated conditions. Further investigations of dual-fluorescent protein reporter architecture revealed that quantitative outputs are influenced by stop codon location and N-and C-terminal fluorescent protein identity. Both dual-fluorescent protein reporters and a “drop-in” version of yeast display support quantification of ncAA incorporation in several single-gene knockout strains, revealing strains that enhance ncAA incorporation efficiency without compromising fidelity. Our studies reveal critical details regarding reporter system performance in yeast and how to effectively deploy such reporters. These findings have substantial implications for how to engineer ncAA incorporation systems—and protein translation apparatuses—to better accommodate alternative genetic codes for expanding the chemical diversity of biosynthesized proteins.Design, System, Application ParagraphOn earth, the genetic code provides nearly invariant instructions for generating the proteins present in all organisms using 20 primary amino acid building blocks. Scientists and engineers have long recognized the potential power of altering the genetic code to introduce amino acids that enhance the chemical versatility of proteins. Proteins containing such “noncanonical amino acids” (ncAAs) can be used to elucidate basic biological phenomena, discover new therapeutics, or engineer new materials. However, tools for measuring ncAA incorporation during protein translation (reporters) exhibit highly variable properties, severely limiting our ability to engineer improved ncAA incorporation systems. In this work, we sought to understand what properties of these reporters affect measurements of ncAA incorporation events. Using a series of ncAA incorporation systems in yeast, we evaluated reporter architecture, measurement techniques, and alternative data analysis methods. We identified key factors contributing to quantification of ncAA incorporation in all of these categories and demonstrated the immediate utility of our approach in identifying genomic knockouts that enhance ncAA incorporation efficiency. Our findings have important implications for how to evolve cells to better accommodate alternative genetic codes.

scholarly journals Versatility of Synthetic tRNAs in Genetic Code Expansion

Genes ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Hoffman ◽  
Ana Crnković ◽  
Dieter Söll
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Genetic Code ◽  
Transfer Rna ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Critical Component ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Translation Apparatus ◽  
Genetic Code Expansion ◽  
Translation Systems ◽  
Multiple Interactions

Transfer RNA (tRNA) is a dynamic molecule used by all forms of life as a key component of the translation apparatus. Each tRNA is highly processed, structured, and modified, to accurately deliver amino acids to the ribosome for protein synthesis. The tRNA molecule is a critical component in synthetic biology methods for the synthesis of proteins designed to contain non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs). The multiple interactions and maturation requirements of a tRNA pose engineering challenges, but also offer tunable features. Major advances in the field of genetic code expansion have repeatedly demonstrated the central importance of suppressor tRNAs for efficient incorporation of ncAAs. Here we review the current status of two fundamentally different translation systems (TSs), selenocysteine (Sec)- and pyrrolysine (Pyl)-TSs. Idiosyncratic requirements of each of these TSs mandate how their tRNAs are adapted and dictate the techniques used to select or identify the best synthetic variants.

scholarly journals Optimization of Expanded Genetic Codes via Genetic Algorithms

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maísa de Carvalho Silva ◽  
Lariza Laura De Oliveira ◽  
Renato Tinós
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Genetic Algorithms ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Genetic Code ◽  
Unnatural Amino Acids ◽  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
Fitness Function ◽  
Unnatural Amino Acid ◽  
Standard Genetic Code ◽  
Genetic Codes

In the last decades, researchers have proposed the use of genetically modified organisms that utilize unnatural amino acids, i.e., amino acids other than the 20 amino acids encoded in the standard genetic code. Unnatural amino acids have been incorporated into genetically engineered organisms for the development of new drugs, fuels and chemicals. When new amino acids are incorporated, it is necessary to modify the standard genetic code. Expanded genetic codes have been created without considering the robustness of the code. The objective of this work is the use of genetic algorithms (GAs) for the optimization of expanded genetic codes. The GA indicates which codons of the standard genetic code should be used to encode a new unnatural amino acid. The fitness function has two terms; one for robustness of the new code and another that takes into account the frequency of use of amino acids. Experiments show that, by controlling the weighting between the two terms, it is possible to obtain more or less amino acid substitutions at the same time that the robustness is minimized.

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