In vivo incorporation of selenalysine in Escherichia coli proteins and its effects on cell growth.

The presence of selenalysine in the culture medium at concentration ranging from 0.05 to 0.3 mM inhibits Escherichia coli growth rate and cell viability. The inhibition of cell growth rate can be imputed to the inhibition of protein synthesis and can be only partially reverted by lysine. Selenalysine is incorporated into cellular proteins in substitution of and in competition with lysine, reaching the value of about 1% as molar fraction with respect to the total amino acids, and substituting up to 14% of protein lysine. The effect of selenalysine on cell viability can be correlated to the extent of its incorporation into proteins, and can be completely reverted by lysine. However, substitution up to 5% of protein lysine by selenalysine does not affect the viability, thus indicating that some degree of substitution can be well tolerated by the cell.