Conversion of Racemic Unnatural Amino Acids to Optically Pure Forms by a Coupled Enzymatic Reaction

Genetic code expansion (GCE) technology is a useful tool for the site-specific modification of proteins. An unnatural amino acid (UAA) is one of the essential components of this technique, typically required at high concentration (1 mM or higher) in growth medium. The supply of UAAs is an important limitation to the application of GCE technology, as many UAAs are either expansive or commercially unavailable. In this study, two UAAs in a racemic mixture were converted into optically pure forms using two enzymes, the d-amino acid oxidase (RgDAAO) from Rhodotorula gracilis and the aminotransferase (TtAT) from Thermus thermophilus. In the coupled enzyme system, RgDAAO oxidizes the d-form of UAAs in a stereospecific manner and produces the corresponding α-keto acids, which are then converted into the l-form of UAAs by TtAT, resulting in the quantitative and stereospecific conversion of racemic UAAs to optically pure forms. The genetic incorporation of the optically pure UAAs into a target protein produced a better protein yield than the same experiments using the racemic mixtures of the UAAs. This method could not only be used for the preparation of optically pure UAAs from racemic mixtures, but also the broad substrate specificity of both enzymes would allow for its expansion to structurally diverse UAAs.