Fidelity of the DNA Ligase-Catalyzed Scaffolding of Peptide Fragments on Nucleic Acid Polymers

We describe the development and analysis of the T4 DNA ligase-catalyzed DNA templated polymerization of pentanucleotides modified with peptide fragments toward the generation of ssDNA-scaffolded peptides. A high-throughput duplex DNA sequencing method was developed to facilitate the determination of fidelity for various codon sets and library sizes used during the polymerization process. With this process, we identified several codon sets that enable the efficient and sequence-specific incorporation of peptide fragments along a ssDNA template at fidelities up to 99% and with low sequence bias. These findings mark a significant advance in generating evolvable biomimetic polymers and should find ready application to the in vitro selection of molecular recognition

In Vitro Selection of Diversely Functionalized Aptamers

We describe the application of T4 DNA ligase-catalyzed DNA templated oligonucleotide polymerization toward the evolution of a diversely functionalized nucleic acid aptamer for human α-thrombin. Using a 256-membered ANNNN comonomer library comprising 16 sublibraries modified with different functional groups, a highly functionalized aptamer for thrombin was raised with a dissociation constant of 1.6 nM. The aptamer was found to be selective for thrombin and required the modifications for binding affinity. This study demonstrates the most differentially functionalized nucleic acid aptamer discovered by in vitro selection and should enable the future exploration of functional group dependence during the evolution of nucleic acid polymer activity

A High-Fidelity Codon Set for the T4 DNA Ligase-Catalyzed Polymerization of Modified Oligonucleotides

In vitro selection of nucleic acid polymers can readily deliver highly specific receptors and catalysts for a variety of applications; however, it is suspected that the functional group deficit of nucleic acids has limited their potential with respect to proteinogenic polymers. This has stimulated research toward expanding their chemical diversity to bridge the functional gap between nucleic acids and proteins to develop a superior biopolymer. In this study, we investigate the effect of codon library size and composition on the sequence specificity of T4 DNA ligase in the DNA-templated polymerization of both unmodified and modified oligonucleotides. Using high-throughput DNA sequencing of duplex pairs, we have uncovered a 256-membered codon set that yields sequence-defined modified ssDNA polymers in high yield and with high fidelity

Sequence-Defined Scaffolding of Peptides on Nucleic Acid Polymers

We have developed a method for the T4 DNA ligase-catalyzed DNA-templated polymerization of 5′-phosphorylated pentanucleotides containing peptide fragments. The polymerization proceeds sequence-specifically to generate DNA-scaffolded peptides in excellent yields. The method has been shown to tolerate peptides ranging from two to eight amino acids in length with a wide variety of functionality. We validated the capabilities of this system in a mock selection for the enrichment of a His-tagged DNA-scaffolded peptide phenotype from a library, which exhibited a 190-fold enrichment after one round of selection. This strategy demonstrates a promising new approach to allowing the generation and <i>in vitro</i> selection of high-affinity reagents based upon single-stranded DNA scaffolding of peptide fragments

Role of Reversible Dimerization in Reactions of Amphoteric Aziridine Aldehydes

Unprotected aziridine aldehydes belong to the amphoteric class of molecules by virtue of their dual nucleophilicity/electrophilicity. The dimeric nature of these molecules, brought together by a weak and reversible aminal “connection”, was found to be an important element of reactivity control. We present evidence that reversible dimer dissociation is instrumental in aziridine aldehyde transformations. We anticipate further developments that will unveil other synthetic consequences of remote control of selectivity through forging reversible covalent interactions