Angewandte
Chemie
was recently achieved in our labs.[17] Herein we expand strain-
promoted click reactions to the direct labeling of proteins by
using Diels–Alder reactions between strained dienophiles
and tetrazines serving as dienes (Scheme 1). Fluorophores
can be made intrinsically fluorogenic by coupling them to the
strongly quenching tetrazine.[8b] This quenching is not easily
addressed, when the tetrazines are genetically encoded.[18] We
synthesized a set of three new dienophilic amino acids and
incorporated them into proteins in E. coli and in mammalian
cells through suppression of the Amber stop codon.
Recently it was found that the trans-cyclooctene deriva-
tives have much faster reaction kinetics for SPIEDAC than
norbornene derivatives.[8a,b] Fast but highly specific reaction
kinetics are desirable for labeling studies in vivo. Owing to the
close similarity to 4, we thus aimed to genetically encode the
trans-cyclooctene UAA 3. The exploration of the promiscuity
of double-mutant synthetase pair RSAF gave typical expres-
sion yields of 4 mg GFPTAG !3 from 1 L E. coli culture.
Compound 3 can be synthesized in five steps starting from
commercially available 9-oxabicyclo[6.1.0]non-4-ene with an
overall yield of 38% (average yield per step above 83%). One
key step in the preparation of gram quantities of 3 is the
coupling of the trans-cyclooctenyl-4-nitrophenyl carbonate to
fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl (Fmoc) lysine in dimethyl sulf-
oxide and N,N-diisopropylethylamine, because other stan-
dard conditions that were used to generate a carbamate bond
were inefficient in yielding pure Fmoc-protected 3. Subse-
quent deprotection was carried out using 20% piperidine in
N,N-dimethylformamide. Attempts to synthesize compound 3
by using the well-established Boc synthetic strategy resulted
in poorer yields because of less-efficient formation of the
carbamate linkage and the lack of suitable Boc-removal
conditions that neither catalyze double-bond isomerization
nor cleave the sidechain carbamate.
Summarizing our expression results, we find that UAAs 1,
2, and 3 are efficiently incorporated by the double-mutant
synthetase pair RSAF, while 1 is also accepted with reduced
efficiency by the wildtype synthethase pair RSWT (Figure 1;
for masspectrometric data see Table S1 in the Supporting
Information). We next aimed to further explore the potential
of UAAs 1, 2, and 3 for in vivo labeling, also in comparison to
the reactivity of 4. E. coli cultures expressing GFPTAG !UAA
were supplemented with 50 mm dye, washed, and then
analyzed using SDS PAGE (masspectrometric conformation
given in Table S1 in the Supporting Information). Figure S1 in
the Supporting Information shows that in line with Scheme 1,
UAAs 1–4 all reacted with tetrazines but only 4 also with
azides. To further test if SPIEDAC and SPAAC reactions
were orthogonal, we grew two cultures expressing MBPTAG !3
(maltose-binding protein) and MBPTAG!4 separately and then
mixed them prior to labeling with tetramethylrhodamine
(TAMRA) azide, which is predicted not to react with
dienophiles (see Scheme 1). Finally the mixed culture was
reacted with coumarin tetrazine. Figure 2a shows selectively
labeled green- and red-fluorescent E. coli (see Figures S1 and
S2 in the Supporting Information for additional controls).
To quantitatively analyze the different reactions, E. coli
lysate was incubated with TAMRA tetrazine or TAMRA
azide. The reaction was followed by using a fluorescence
spectrometer by exciting GFP (Figure 2). Initially, only green
fluorescence was observed. Upon reaction with the TAMRA
compounds, orange fluorescence appeared owing to Foerster
resonance energy transfer (FRET) from GFP to TAMRA in
agreement with the close proximity after covalent coupling of
TAMRA to GFP.[17] Figure 2c summarizes the data from all
experiments, and Figure S3 and Table S2 in the Supporting
Information list the observed reaction kinetics. For the
SPIEDAC reaction of UAA 3 with TAMRA tetrazine we
found a rate constant of k = (35000 ꢀ 3000)mꢁ1 sꢁ1, which is
In our previous work, we genetically encoded UAA 4 by
means of an engineered tRNA/synthetase pair from Meth-
anosarcina mazei that naturally encodes pyrrolysine.[17,19]
While the wildtype synthetase pair (tRNAPyl/PylRSWT, here
termed RSWT) was not efficient in recognizing the unnatural
amino acid 4 as a substrate, a rationally designed double
mutant (Y306A, Y384F; here termed tRNAPyl/PylRSAF
,
RSAF) efficiently incorporated 4 in response to the Amber
codon.[17] We now aimed to explore the possible promiscuity
of double mutant RSAF to other unnatural amino acids with
similarly bulky side chains. To objectively evaluate our new
compounds, we also included unnatural amino acid 4 as
a standard for which we reported an expression yield of about
10 mg GFPTAG!4 per 1 L of E. coli culture (GFP = green
fluorescent protein).[17] We first synthesized the norbornene
derivatives, compounds 1 and 2, because they are known
dienophiles for SPIEDAC.[7d,20] Unnatural amino acids 1 and
2 were prepared in two steps starting from the commercially
available alcohol via a chloroformate intermediate followed
by coupling to tert-butoxycarbonyl (Boc)-protected lysine and
subsequent deprotection using 60% formic acid, which
prevents cleavage of the sidechain carbamate. Both com-
pounds were obtained in an overall yield of more than 91%.
We then tested the Amber suppression efficiency of the RSWT
and RSAF systems by co-expressing a GFP reporter construct
with an Amber TAG mutation (GFPTAG). GFP fluorescence
occurred only in response to efficient Amber suppression.
Full-length GFP protein was purified using a C-terminal
purification handle. Figure 1 shows that norbonene UAAs
1 and 2 are efficiently recognized by the RSAF mutant (typical
GFP yields from a 1 L E. coli culture are 10 mg for 1 and 2;
Table S1 in the Supporting Information lists the confirming
results from masspectrometric determination).
Figure 1. Fluorescence images of microcentrifuge tubes with E. coli
suspensions expressing GFPTAG!UAA in the absence (ꢁ) and presence
(+) of UAAs 1–4 with the corresponding Coomassie-stained SDS
PAGE gel after purification of GFPTAG!UAA for RSWT (a) and RSAF (b).
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 4166 –4170
ꢀ 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
4167