de Veer Simon J, Zhou Yan, Durek Thomas, Craik David J, Rehm Fabian B H
Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science, The University of Queensland Brisbane QLD 4072 Australia
Chem Sci. 2024 Mar 5;15(14):5248-5255. doi: 10.1039/d3sc06352f. eCollection 2024 Apr 3.
Transpeptidases are powerful tools for site-specific protein modification, enabling the production of tailored biologics to investigate protein function and aiding the development of next-generation therapeutics and diagnostics. Although protein labelling at the N- or C-terminus is readily accomplished using a range of established transpeptidases, these reactions are generally limited to forming products that are linked by a standard (secondary) amide bond. Here we show that, unlike other widely used transpeptidases, an engineered asparaginyl ligase is able to efficiently synthesise tertiary amide bonds by accepting diverse secondary amine nucleophiles. These reactions proceed efficiently under mild conditions (near-neutral pH) and allow the optimal recognition elements for asparaginyl ligases (P1 Asn and P2'' Leu) to be preserved. Certain products, particularly proline-containing products, were found to be protected from recognition by the enzyme, allowing for straightforward sequential labelling of proteins. Additionally, incorporation of 4-azidoproline enables one-pot dual labelling directly at the ligation junction. These capabilities further expand the chemical diversity of asparaginyl ligase-catalysed reactions and provide an alternative approach for straightforward, successive modification of protein substrates.
转肽酶是用于位点特异性蛋白质修饰的强大工具,能够生产定制的生物制品以研究蛋白质功能,并有助于下一代治疗药物和诊断方法的开发。尽管使用一系列已确立的转肽酶可以轻松实现蛋白质在N端或C端的标记,但这些反应通常仅限于形成通过标准(二级)酰胺键连接的产物。在这里,我们表明,与其他广泛使用的转肽酶不同,一种工程化的天冬酰胺连接酶能够通过接受多种仲胺亲核试剂来有效合成叔酰胺键。这些反应在温和条件下(接近中性pH)高效进行,并能保留天冬酰胺连接酶的最佳识别元件(P1天冬酰胺和P2''亮氨酸)。发现某些产物,特别是含脯氨酸的产物,能免受该酶的识别,从而可以直接对蛋白质进行连续标记。此外,引入4-叠氮基脯氨酸可直接在连接位点进行一锅法双重标记。这些能力进一步扩展了天冬酰胺连接酶催化反应的化学多样性,并为直接、连续修饰蛋白质底物提供了一种替代方法。