Unnatural amino acid mutagenesis might be one of the most groundbreaking achieve

Question

Unnatural amino acid mutagenesis might be one of the most groundbreaking achievements in modern biochemistry. This process allows for the incorporation of amino acids not coded for by the body (one's different from the 20 amino acids you studied in this course). This process allows scientists to use amino acids with different functional groups not found in nature.

Investigate how unnatural amino acid mutagenesis works. Take time to examine what changes needed to be made to the tRNA to allow for an unnatural amino acid to be used instead of the native substrate. Also focus on what codons are used to recognize the modified tRNA. How many different codons are there that can be used? What are they called? Please cite any sources used in this discussion (should contain 5-10 sources).

Explanation / Answer

Site specific incorporation of unnatural amino acids into proteins relies on genetic reassignment of nonsense or quadruplet codon. There are more than 50 such codons. Suppressor tRNA is chemically acylated with an unnatural amino acid. Like all other amino acids, synthesis of unnatural amino acid requires the presence of tRNA, codon and aminoacyl tRNA synthetase. But, here this complex is called as orthogonal set. This orthogonal set does not cross talk with endogenous tRNA/codon/synthetase set coding for normal amino acids.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse U
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.