Introducing noncanonical amino acids for studying and engineering bacterial microcompartments.

Hao Chen, Jessica Wilson, Sara Ottinger, Qinglei Gan, Chenguang Fan

Journal: Current opinion in microbiology 2021;61():67-72

PMID: 33813159

Free Full Text on PubMed Central View on PubMed

Abstract

Bacterial microcompartments (BMCs) with selectively permeable shells and encapsulated enzyme cores are well-suited candidates for nano-bioreactors because of their advantages of enhancing pathway flux and protection against toxic products. To better study and engineer protein-based BMCs, a series of protein chemistry approaches are adopted. As one of the most advanced techniques, genetic code expansion can introduce various noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) with diverse functional groups into target proteins, thus providing powerful tools for protein studies and engineering. This review summarizes and proposes useful tools based on current development of the genetic code expansion technique towards challenges in BMC studies and engineering.

Address: Cell and Molecular Biology Program, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA.; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA.; Cell and Molecular Biology Program, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].

DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2021.03.004

Link outs

Free resources

Full Text Sources:

Other Literature Sources:

https://scite.ai/reports/33813159

Research Materials:

https://antibodies.cancer.gov/detail/CPTC-HLA-B-1

Subscription / membership required

Full Text Sources:

MeSH Terms: Amino Acids, Bacteria, Bacterial Proteins