Work

Genetic Code Expansion in Zebrafish Embryos and Its Application to Optical Control of Cell Signaling

Year: 2017

Type: article

Abstract: Site-specific incorporation of unnatural amino acids into proteins provides a powerful tool to study protein function. Here we report genetic code expansion in zebrafish embryos and its application to the optogenetic control of cell signaling. We genetically encoded four unnatural amino acids with a diverse set of functional groups, which included a photocaged lysine that was applied to the light-activation of luciferase and kinase activity. This approach enables versatile manipulation of protein function in live zebrafish embryos, a transparent and commonly used model organism to study embryonic development.

Source: Journal of the American Chemical Society

DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b02145

Authors: Jihe Liu, James Hemphill, Subhas Samanta, Michael Tsang, Alexander Deiters

Institution: University of Pittsburgh

Language: English

Topic: RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green