Unnatural Amino Acid Incorporation into Virus-Like Particles

Unnatural Amino Acid Incorporation into Virus-Like Particles

Unnatural amino acids have been introduced into capsid proteins that self-assemble into nanoscale virus-like structures, thereby arraying points of unique chemical reactivity in polyvalent patterns. Strable et al. describe two such particles incorporating azide and alkyne groups by means of methionine replacement, and their subsequent selective conjugation by a copper(I)-catalyzed click reaction (left). Shown on the right are the outside (top) and inside (bottom) surfaces of the bacteriophage Qβ particle, highlighting sites of methionine replacement in green (K16M) and yellow (T93M) (see Strable et al. Bioconjugate Chem., 19 (4), 866-875, 2008.

Erica Strable, Duane E. Prasuhn, Jr., Andrew K. Udit, Steven Brown, A. James Link, John T. Ngo, Gabriel Lander, Joel Quispe, Clinton S. Potter, Bridget Carragher, David A. Tirrell, and M. G. Finn