title: Genetically encoding unnatural amino acids for cellular and neuronal studies.
abstract: Proteins participate in various biological processes and can be harnessed to probe and control biological events selectively and reproducibly, but the genetic code limits the building block to 20 common amino acids for protein manipulation in living cells. The genetic encoding of unnatural amino acids will remove this restriction and enable new chemical and physical properties to be precisely introduced into proteins. Here we present new strategies for generating orthogonal tRNA-synthetase pairs, which made possible the genetic encoding of diverse unnatural amino acids in different mammalian cells and primary neurons. Using this new methodology, we incorporated unnatural amino acids with extended side chains into the K+ channel Kv1.4, and found that the bulkiness of residues in the inactivation peptide is essential for fast channel inactivation, a finding that had not been possible using conventional mutagenesis. This technique will stimulate and facilitate new molecular studies using tailored unnatural amino acids for cell biology and neurobiology.
authors.affiliation: Jack H. Skirball Center for Chemical Biology and Proteomics, 10010 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.
authors.forename: Wenyuan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jeffrey K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Takimoto
authors.forename: Gordon V
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Louie
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Baiga
authors.forename: Joseph P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Noel
authors.forename: Kuo-Fen
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Slesinger
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005815:Genetic Code; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology; D006801:Humans; D051665:Kv1.4 Potassium Channel / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology / Q000528:radiation effects; D008954:Models, Biological; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed / Q000379:methods*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques / Q000379:methods; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D051665:Kv1.4 Potassium Channel; D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases