Docking of tryptophanyl [corrected tryptophan] analogs to trytophanyl-tRNA synthetase: implications for non-canonical amino acid incorporations.
Non-canonical amino acids (NAA), as building blocks for peptides and proteins during ribosomal translation, represent a nearly infinite supply of novel functions. The specific selection, activation and tRNA-charging of amino acids by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (AARS) in the aminoacylation reaction are essential steps. In most cases, aminoacylation of N(AA) is a good indication that the related amino acid will participate in ribosomal translation as well. However, testing the translational capacity of amino acid analogs has technical limitations. Therefore, a rapid and reliable in silico test for NAA recognition by AARS would be advantageous in experimental design. We chose tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase from Escherichia coli as a model system for docking studies with various tryptophan analogs using the FlexX-Pharm strategy. We were able to calculate relative binding energies for Trp analogs in TrpRS that correlate well with their translational activities in E. coli. In particular, FlexX-Pharm predicted the binding sites of fluoro-, amino-, hydroxyl- and aza-containing Trp analogs within 1.5 A of Trp in the homology model of E. coli TrpRS. Therefore, the use of ligand docking prior to NAA incorporation experiments might provide a straightforward means for determining NAA that can be efficiently incorporated into a protein.
Azim
M Kamran
MK
H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan. kamran.azim@iccs.edu
Budisa
Nediljko
N
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D001665:Binding Sites; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000201:enzymology; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011487:Protein Conformation; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014364:Tryptophan / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D014369:Tryptophan-tRNA Ligase / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
D000596:Amino Acids; D014364:Tryptophan; D014369:Tryptophan-tRNA Ligase