Streptococcus pyogenes (Spy) Cas9 has potential as a component of gene therapeutics for incurable diseases. One of its limitations is its large size, which impedes its formulation and delivery in therapeutic applications. Smaller Cas9s are an alternative, but lack robust activity or specificity and frequently recognize longer PAMs. Here, we investigated four uncharacterized, smaller Cas9s and found three employing a “GG” dinucleotide PAM similar to SpyCas9. Protein engineering generated synthetic RNA-guided nucleases (sRGNs) with editing efficiencies and specificities exceeding even SpyCas9 in vitro and in human cell lines on disease-relevant targets. sRGN mRNA lipid nanoparticles displayed manufacturing advantages and high in vivo editing efficiency in the mouse liver. Finally, sRGNs, but not SpyCas9, could be packaged into all-in-one AAV particles with a gRNA and effected robust in vivo editing of non-human primate (NHP) retina photoreceptors. Human gene therapy efforts are expected to benefit from these improved alternatives to existing CRISPR nucleases.

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy in combination with site-directed spin labeling (SDSL) is a powerful tool in protein structural research. Nitroxides are highly suitable spin labeling reagents, but suffer from limited stability, particularly in the cellular environment. Herein we present the synthesis of a maleimide- and an azide-modified tetraethyl-shielded isoindoline-based nitroxide (M- and Az-TEIO) for labeling of cysteines or the noncanonical amino acid para-ethynyl-l-phenylalanine (pENF). We demonstrate the high stability of TEIO site-specifically attached to the protein thioredoxin (TRX) against reduction in prokaryotic and eukaryotic environments, and conduct double electron-electron resonance (DEER) measurements. We further generate a rotamer library for the new residue pENF-Az-TEIO that affords a distance distribution that is in agreement with the measured distribution.

We report site-directed protein spin labelling via Suzuki-Miyaura coupling of a nitroxide boronic acid label with the genetically encoded amino acid 4-iodo-l-phenylalanine. The resulting spin label bears a rigid biphenyl linkage with lower flexibility than spin label R1. It is suitable to obtain defined electron paramagnetic resonance distance distributions and to report protein-membrane interactions and conformational transitions of α-synuclein.

The directed evolution of orthogonal aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRS) for the genetic encoding of noncanonical amino acids (ncAA) has paved the way for the site-specific incorporation of >170 functionally diverse ncAAs into proteins in a large number of organisms [1, 2]. Here, we describe the directed evolution of orthogonal pyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase (PylRS) mutants with new amino acid selectivities from libraries using a two-step selection protocol based on chloramphenicol and barnase reporter systems. Although this protocol focuses on the evolution of PylRS variants, this procedure can be universally employed to evolve orthogonal aaRS.

Site-directed spin labeling (SDSL) in combination with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy allows studying the structure, dynamics, and interactions of proteins via distance measurements in the nanometer range. We here give an overview of available spin labels, the strategies for their introduction into proteins, and the associated potentials for protein structural studies in vitro and in the context of living cells.

Fluorophenylalanines bearing 2-5 fluorine atoms at the phenyl ring have been genetically encoded by amber codon. Replacement of F59, a phenylalanine residue that is directly involved in interactions with trimethylated K9 of histone H3, in the Mpp8 chromodomain recombinantly with fluorophenylalanines significantly impairs the binding to a K9-trimethylated H3 peptide.

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy in combination with site-directed spin labeling (SDSL) is a powerful approach to study the structure, dynamics, and interactions of proteins. The genetic encoding of the noncanonical amino acid spin-labeled lysine 1 (SLK-1) eliminates the need for any chemical labeling steps in SDSL-EPR studies and enables the investigation of native, endogenous proteins with minimal structural perturbation, and without the need to create unique reactive sites for chemical labeling. We report detailed experimental procedures for the efficient synthesis of SLK-1, the expression and purification of SLK-1-containing proteins under conditions that ensure maximal integrity of the nitroxide radical moiety, and procedures for intramolecular EPR distance measurements in proteins by double electron-electron resonance.

The genetic encoding of nitroxide amino acids in combination with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) distance measurements enables precise structural studies of native proteins, i.e. without the need for mutations to create unique reactive sites for chemical labeling and thus with minimal structural perturbation. We here report on in vitro DEER measurements in native E. coli thioredoxin (TRX) that establish the nitroxide amino acid SLK-1 as a spectroscopic probe that reports distances and conformational flexibilities in the enzyme with nonmutated catalytic centers that are not accessible by the use of the traditional methanethiosulfonate spin label (MTSSL). We generated a rotamer library for SLK-1 that in combination with molecular dynamics (MD) simulation enables predictions of distance distributions between two SLK-1 labels incorporated into a target protein. Toward a routine use of SLK-1 for EPR distance measurements in proteins and the advancement of the approach to intracellular environments, we study the stability of SLK-1 in E. coli cultures and lysates and establish guidelines for protein expression and purification that offer maximal nitroxide stability. These advancements and insights provide new perspectives for facile structural studies of native, endogenous proteins by EPR distance measurements.

Summerer (Chemical Biology of the Genetic Code) at the university of Konstanz. It was funded by the " Graduiertenschule Chemical Biology " and the Aventis Foundation and the " Stiftung Stipendien-Fonds des Verbandes der Chemischen Industrie (VCI) " with a " Hoechst Doktorandenstipendium ". [1] Reproduced in part with the permission of M. Encoded Spin Labels for in vitro and in-cell EPR studies of native Proteins " Methods Enzymol., 2015, in press. Evolved sequence contexts for highly efficient amber suppression with noncanonical amino acids "

The site‐selective introduction of photo‐crosslinking groups into proteins enables the discovery and mapping of weak and/or transient protein interactions with high spatiotemporal resolution, both in vitro and in vivo. We report the genetic encoding of a furan‐based, photo‐crosslinking amino acid in human cells; it can be activated with red light, thus offering high penetration depths in biological samples. This is achieved by activation of the amino acid and charging to its cognate tRNA by a pyrrolysyl‐tRNA‐synthetase (PylRS) mutant with broad polyspecificity. To gain insights into the recognition of this amino acid and to provide a rationale for its polyspecificity, we solved three crystal structures of the PylRS mutant: in its apo‐form, in complex with adenosine 5′‐(β,γ‐imido)triphosphate (AMP‐PNP) and in complex with the AMP ester of the furan amino acid. These structures provide clues for the observed polyspecificity and represent a promising starting point for the engineering of PylRS mutants with further increased substrate scope.

The expansion of the genetic code with noncanonical amino acids (ncAA) enables the function of proteins to be tailored with high molecular precision. In this approach, the ncAA is charged to an orthogonal nonsense suppressor tRNA by an aminoacyl-tRNA-synthetase (aaRS) and incorporated into the target protein in vivo by suppression of nonsense codons in the mRNA during ribosomal translation. Compared to sense codon translation, this process occurs with reduced efficiency. However, it is still poorly understood, how the local sequence context of the nonsense codon affects suppression efficiency. Here, we report sequence contexts for highly efficient suppression of the widely used amber codon in E. coli for the orthogonal Methanocaldococcus jannaschii tRNA(Tyr)/TyrRS and Methanosarcina mazei tRNA(Pyl)/PylRS pairs. In vivo selections of sequence context libraries consisting of each two random codons directly up- and downstream of an amber codon afforded contexts with strong preferences for particular mRNA nucleotides and/or amino acids that markedly differed from preferences of contexts obtained in control selections with sense codons. The contexts provided high amber suppression efficiencies with little ncAA-dependence that were transferrable between proteins and resulted in protein expression levels of 70-110% compared to levels of control proteins without amber codon. These sequence contexts represent stable tags for robust and highly efficient incorporation of ncAA into proteins in standard E. coli strains and provide general design rules for the engineering of amber codons into target genes.

We report the genetic encoding of a noncanonical, spin-labeled amino acid in Escherichia coli. This enables the intracellular biosynthesis of spin-labeled proteins and obviates the need for any chemical labeling step usually required for protein electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies. The amino acid can be introduced at multiple, user-defined sites of a protein and is stable in E. coli even for prolonged expression times. It can report intramolecular distance distributions in proteins by double-electron electron resonance measurements. Moreover, the signal of spin-labeled protein can be selectively detected in cells. This provides elegant new perspectives for in-cell EPR studies of endogenous proteins.

Gene expression is extensively regulated by specific patterns of genomic 5-methylcytosine (mC), but the ability to directly detect this modification at user-defined genomic loci is limited. One reason is the lack of molecules that discriminate between mC and cytosine (C) and at the same time provide inherent, programmable sequence-selectivity. Programmable transcription-activator-like effectors (TALEs) have been observed to exhibit mC-sensitivity in vivo, but to only a limited extent in vitro. We report an mC-detection assay based on TALE control of DNA replication that displays unexpectedly strong mC-discrimination ability in vitro. The status and level of mC modification at single positions in oligonucleotides can be determined unambiguously by this assay, independently of the overall target sequence. Moreover, discrimination is reliably observed for positions bound by N-terminal and central regions of TALEs. This indicates the wide scope and robustness of the approach for highly resolved mC detection and enabled the detection of a single mC in a large, eukaryotic genome.

The expansion of the genetic code with non-canonical amino acids (ncAA) enables the chemical and biophysical properties of proteins to be tailored, inside cells, with a previously unattainable level of precision. A wide range of ncAA with functions not found in canonical amino acids have been genetically encoded in recent years and have delivered insights into biological processes that would be difficult to access with traditional approaches of molecular biology. A major field for the development and application of novel ncAA-functions has been transcription and its regulation. This is particularly attractive, since advanced DNA sequencing- and proteomics-techniques continue to deliver vast information on these processes on a global level, but complementing methodologies to study them on a detailed, molecular level and in living cells have been comparably scarce. In a growing number of studies, genetic code expansion has now been applied to precisely control the chemical properties of transcription factors, RNA polymerases and histones, and this has enabled new insights into their interactions, conformational changes, cellular localizations and the functional roles of posttranslational modifications.

AbstractGenexpression ist stark durch spezifische Muster von genomischem 5‐Methylcytosin (mC) reguliert, aber die direkte Detektion dieser Modifizierung an benutzerdefinierten Genorten ist nur eingeschränkt möglich, unter anderem, weil es keine Proteine gibt, die zwischen mC und Cytosin (C) unterscheiden können und zugleich eine inhärente, programmierbare Sequenzselektivität bieten. Die hier vorgestellte Methode zur mC‐Detektion beruht auf mC‐abhängiger Steuerung der DNA‐Replikation und zeigt eine unerwartet ausgeprägte mC‐Sensitivität von Transkriptionsaktivator‐artigen Effektoren (TALEs). Damit kann der Methylierungsstatus und ‐grad an einzelnen C‐Positionen von Oligonucleotiden für die N‐terminalen und zentralen Regionen von TALEs eindeutig evaluiert werden, unabhängig von der Zielsequenz. Dies spricht für eine breite Anwendbarkeit und Robustheit der Methode zur hochaufgelösten mC‐Detektion und ermöglicht die Erkennung von mC an einzelnen Positionen in großen eukaryotischen Genomen.

Final program, abstracts, and information about the 57th annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Conference on Magnetic Resonance, co-endorsed by the Colorado Section of the American Chemical Society and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. Held in Snowbird, Utah, July 26-31, 2015. Copyright Statement / License for Reuse This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This article is available in Rocky Mountain Conference on Magnetic Resonance: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/ rockychem/vol57/iss1/1 FINAL PROGRAM AND ABSTRACTS

Well red: A protein-RNA crosslinker has been genetically encoded that can be controlled with red light, thus offering high penetration depths in biological materials. This should enable the discovery and mapping of transient protein-RNA interactions and enable the design of peptide- and protein-based drugs for RNA-targeted photodynamic therapy.