2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Development of a method for the synthesis of polymers containing ester bond (s) by genetic code expansion

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20710177
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Living organism molecular science
Research Institution	The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research
Principal Investigator	KOBAYASHI Takatsugu The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, システム研究チーム, 特別研究員 (90446518)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2009
Keywords	非天然型アミノ酸 / 翻訳 / tRNA / アミノアシルtRNA合成酵素 / タンパク質工学 / ポリエステル / 高分子化学
Research Abstract	Highly homogenious polyester can be synthesized by genetic-information-based synthesis of polypeptide-like polymers. In this study, an aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase was altered for the incorporation of ester bond into the polymers synthesized on ribosome. As a result, the mutant enzymes, which efficiently recognize the building block of the ester bonds, were found. By using these enzymes, the in vitro translation system that synthesizes polymers containing two serially polymerized α-hydroxyacids, was successfully established.