Abstract
By evolving the N-terminal domain of Methanosarcina mazei pyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase (PylRS) that directly interacts with tRNA(Pyl) , a mutant clone displaying improved amber-suppression efficiency for the genetic incorporation of N(ϵ) -(tert-butoxycarbonyl)-l-lysine threefold more than the wild type was identified. The identified mutations were R19H/H29R/T122S. Direct transfer of these mutations to two other PylRS mutants that were previously evolved for the genetic incorporation of N(ϵ) -acetyl-l-lysine and N(ϵ) -(4-azidobenzoxycarbonyl)-l-δ,ϵ-dehydrolysine also improved the incorporation efficiency of these two noncanonical amino acids. As the three identified mutations were found in the N-terminal domain of PylRS that was separated from its catalytic domain for charging tRNA(Pyl) with a noncanonical amino acid, they could potentially be introduced to all other PylRS mutants to improve the incorporation efficiency of their corresponding noncanonical amino acids. Therefore, it represents a general strategy to optimize the pyrrolysine incorporation system-based noncanonical amino-acid mutagenesis.