Metal-chelating amino acids as building blocks for synthetic receptors sensing metal ions and histidine-tagged proteins.
Protein structure and function rely on a still not fully understood interplay of energetic and entropic constraints defined by the permutation of the twenty genetically encoded amino acids. Many attempts have been undertaken to design peptide-peptide interaction pairs and synthetic receptors de novo by using this limited number of building blocks. We describe a rational approach to creating a building block based on a tailored metal-chelating amino acid. Nepsilon,Nepsilon-bis(carboxymethyl)-L-lysine can be flexibly introduced into peptides by 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl solid-phase chemistry. The corresponding metal-chelating peptides act as metal sensors and synthetic receptors for histidine-tagged proteins. These biochemical tweezers will open new ways to control protein-protein interactions, to design peptide-based interaction pairs, or to generate switchable protein function.
Hutschenreiter
Silke
S
Institute of Biochemistry, Biocenter, Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University Frankfurt, Marie-Curie Strasse 9, 60439 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Neumann
Lars
L
Rädler
Ulf
U
Schmitt
Lutz
L
Tampé
Robert
R
D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D002118:Calcium / Q000737:chemistry; D002412:Cations; D002614:Chelating Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D006639:Histidine / Q000737:chemistry*; D008274:Magnesium / Q000737:chemistry; D008670:Metals / Q000032:analysis*; D009532:Nickel / Q000737:chemistry; D010455:Peptides / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000737:chemistry; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods
D000596:Amino Acids; D002412:Cations; D002614:Chelating Agents; D008670:Metals; D010455:Peptides; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface; D006639:Histidine; D009532:Nickel; D008274:Magnesium; D002118:Calcium