Enzymatic aminoacylation of tRNA with unnatural amino acids

The biochemical flexibility of the cellular translation apparatus offers, in principle, a simple route to the synthesis of drug-like modified peptides and novel biopolymers. However, only approximately 75 unnatural building blocks are known to be fully compatible with enzymatic tRNA acylation and subsequent ribosomal synthesis of modified peptides. Although the translation system can reject substrate analogs at several steps along the pathway to peptide synthesis, much of the specificity resides at the level of the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (AARS) enzymes that are responsible for charging tRNAs with amino acids. We have developed an AARS assay based on mass spectrometry that can be used to rapidly identify unnatural monomers that can be enzymatically charged onto tRNA. By using this assay, we have found 59 previously unknown AARS substrates. These include numerous side-chain analogs with useful functional properties. Remarkably, many beta-amino acids, N-methyl amino acids, and alpha,alpha-disubstituted amino acids are also AARS substrates. These previously unidentified AARS substrates will be useful in studies of the specificity of subsequent steps in translation and may significantly expand the number of analogs that can be used for the ribosomal synthesis of modified peptides.