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Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Residue-specific Incorporation of Noncanonical Amino Acids into Model Proteins Using an Escherichia coli Cell-free Transcription-translation System
Published on: August 1, 2016
The flexizyme system: a highly flexible tRNA aminoacylation tool for the translation apparatus
Masaki Ohuchi1, Hiroshi Murakami, Hiroaki Suga
1Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan.
Abstract:
Flexizymes are de novo ribozymes capable of charging a wide variety of non-natural amino acids on tRNAs. The flexizyme system enables reprogramming of the genetic code by reassigning the codons that are generally assigned to natural amino acids to non-natural residues, and thus mRNA-directed synthesis of non-natural polypeptides can be achieved. In this review, we comprehensively summarize the history of the flexizyme system and its subsequent development into a practical tool. Furthermore, applications to the synthesis of novel biopolymers via genetic code reprogramming and perspectives for future applications are described.
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