International Journal of Molecular Sciences Article In-Cell Synthesis of Bioorthogonal Alkene Tag S-Allyl-Homocysteine and Its Coupling with Reprogrammed Translation Saba Nojoumi 1, Ying Ma 1, Sergej Schwagerus 2,3, Christian P. R. Hackenberger 2,3 and Nediljko Budisa 1,4,* 1 Institut für Chemie, Technische Universität Berlin, Müller-Breslau-Str. 10, D-10623 Berlin, Germany;
[email protected] (S.N.);
[email protected] (Y.M.) 2 Institut für Chemie der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Brook-Taylor-Str. 2, D-12489 Berlin, Germany;
[email protected] (S.S.);
[email protected] (C.P.R.H.) 3 Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP), Campus Berlin-Buch, Robert-Roessle-Str. 10, D-13125 Berlin, Germany 4 Chair of Chemical Synthetic Biology, Department of Chemistry, University of Manitoba, 144 Dysart Rd, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada * Correspondence:
[email protected] or
[email protected]; Tel.: +49-30-314-28821 or +1-204-474-9178 Received: 18 April 2019; Accepted: 7 May 2019; Published: 9 May 2019 Abstract: In this study, we report our initial results on in situ biosynthesis of S-allyl-l-homocysteine (Sahc) by simple metabolic conversion of allyl mercaptan in Escherichia coli, which served as the host organism endowed with a direct sulfhydration pathway. The intracellular synthesis we describe in this study is coupled with the direct incorporation of Sahc into proteins in response to methionine codons. Together with O-acetyl-homoserine, allyl mercaptan was added to the growth medium, followed by uptake and intracellular reaction to give Sahc. Our protocol efficiently combined the in vivo synthesis of Sahc via metabolic engineering with reprogrammed translation, without the need for a major change in the protein biosynthesis machinery.