Improvement of in vitro-transcribed amber suppressor tRNAs toward higher suppression efficiency in wheat germ extract

In vitro-transcribed, unmodified, and non-aminoacylated amber suppressor tRNAs that are recognized by natural aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase were improved toward higher suppression efficiency in batch-mode cell-free translation in wheat germ extract. The suppression efficiency of the suppressor obtained through four sequence optimization steps (anticodon alteration of natural tRNAs (the first generation); chimerization of the efficient suppressors in the first generation; investigation and optimization of the effective parts in the second generation; combination of the optimized parts in the third generation) and by the terminal tuning was approximately 60%, which was 2.4-fold higher than that of the best suppressor in the first generation. In addition, an eRF1 aptamer further increased the efficiency up to 85%. This highly efficient suppression system also functioned well in a dialysis-based large-scale protein synthesis.