A p-isothiocyanate phenylalanine mutant of the homodimeric protein homoserine o-succinyltransferase (MetA) was isolated in a temperature dependent selection from a library of metA mutants containing noncanonical amino acids. This mutant protein has a dramatic increase of 24 °C in thermal stability compared to the wild type protein ...
A p-isothiocyanate phenylalanine mutant of the homodimeric protein homoserine o-succinyltransferase (MetA) was isolated in a temperature dependent selection from a library of metA mutants containing noncanonical amino acids. This mutant protein has a dramatic increase of 24 °C in thermal stability compared to the wild type protein. Peptide mapping experiments revealed that the isothiocyanate group forms a thiourea cross-link to the N terminal proline of the other monomer, despite the two positions being >30 Å apart in the X-ray crystal structure of the wild type protein. These results show that an expanded set of building blocks beyond the canonical 20 amino acids can lead to significant changes in the properties of proteins.
Organizational Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry and Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology , The Scripps Research Institute , La Jolla , California 92037 , United States.
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