Residue-Specific Incorporation of Noncanonical Amino Acids in Auxotrophic Hosts: Quo Vadis?

The residue-specific incorporation of noncanonical amino acids in auxotrophic hosts allows the global exchange of a canonical amino acid with its noncanonical analog.

Noncanonical amino acids are not encoded by the standard genetic code, but they carry unique side chain chemistries, e.g., to perform bioorthogonal conjugation reactions or to manipulate the physicochemical properties of a protein such as folding and stability. The method was introduced nearly 70 years ago and is still in widespread use because of its simplicity and robustness.

In our study, we review the trends in the field during the last two decades. We give an overview of the application of the method for artificial post-translational protein modifications and the selective functionalization and directed immobilization of proteins.

We highlight the trends in the use of noncanonical amino acids for the analysis of nascent proteomes and the engineering of enzymes and biomaterials, and the progress in the biosynthesis of amino acid analogs. We also discuss the challenges for the scale-up of the technique.

Side chain chemistries of canonical and noncanonical amino acids. The canonical amino acids whose analog incorporation is reviewed in this study are highlighted in red together with their coding units in the standard genetic code. The amino acids are shown in the three-letter code. An illustrative selection of noncanonical amino acids for residue-specific incorporation is shown in the pale-red box. — Chemical Reviews via PubMed

Residue-Specific Incorporation of Noncanonical Amino Acids in Auxotrophic Hosts: Quo Vadis?, Chemical Reviews via PubMed

Residue-Specific Incorporation of Noncanonical Amino Acids in Auxotrophic Hosts: Quo Vadis?, Chemical Reviews (open access)

Astrobiology, Genomics,