Incorporation of chlorinated analogues of aliphatic amino acids during cell-free protein synthesis.

3-Chloro-Abu and 4-chloro-Nva are biosynthetically incorporated into E. coli peptidyl-Pro cis-trans isomerase B, as substitutes for Val and Leu, respectively. The extent of incorporation is up to ~90%, and substituted protein is catalytically active.

Peculiar stability of amino acids and peptides from a radical perspective.

Photochemical reactions of free and N-acetyl alpha-amino acids with chlorine and deuterium labeled hydrogen peroxide have been used to determine both the relative rates of reaction of molecules of these classes and the relative reactivity of their different types of hydrogen toward abstraction by chlorine and oxygen centered radicals. The relative rates of reaction of these species range over more than 3 orders of magnitude; however, where data are available from more than one amino acid for a particular type of group at a specific position on the side chain, the values are remarkably similar. The predictive utility of these results has been demonstrated for the regioselective chlorination of tripeptides.