Among all approaches used for the semisynthesis of natural
or chemically
modified products, enzyme-assisted ligation is among the most promising
and dynamically developing approaches. Applying an efficient C247A
mutant of Oldenlandia affinis plant
ligase OaAEP1 and solid-phase peptide synthesis chemistry, we present
the chemoenzymatic synthesis of a complete sequence of the cysteine-rich
and metal-binding cyanobacterial metallothionein Synechococcus metallothionein
A (SmtA). Zn(II) and Cd(II) binding to the newly synthesized SmtA
showed identical properties to the protein expressed in Escherichia coli. The presented approach is the first
example of the use of OaAEP1 mutant for total protein synthesis of
metallothionein, which occurs in mild conditions preventing cysteine
thiol oxidation. The recognition motif of the applied enzyme could
naturally occur in the protein structure or be synthetically or genetically
incorporated in some loops or secondary structure elements. Therefore,
we envision that this strategy can be used for efficiently obtaining
SmtA and for a wide range of proteins and their derivatives.
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