Bioconjugation and Active Site Design of Enzymes Using Non-natural Amino Acids

Enzymes are biocatalysts that play key roles in diverse chemical reactions in living organisms and industrial conversion processes generating value-added products. Since wild-type enzymes obtained from nature are normally not optimal for various applications, enzyme engineering is usually required for enhanced or new properties. Site-specific incorporation of a non-natural amino acid became a powerful protein-engineering tool. In this short review, we briefly summarize our contribution to enzyme complex formation and active site design of enzymes using the technique of site-specific incorporation of a non-natural amino acid. First, site-specific incorporation of a non-natural amino acid at a permissive site of an enzyme led to bioconjugation to other molecules without compromising critical properties. Murine dihydrofolate reductase (mDHFR) was site-specifically conjugated to a biotin via click chemistry to achieve site-specific immobilization. Similarly, formate dehydrogenase (FDH) was site-specifically c...