A hydrophilic azobenzene-bearing amino acid for photochemical control of a restriction enzyme BamHI.

A novel hydrophilic and negatively charged azobenzene-bearing amino acid, 4'-carboxyphenylazophenylalanine (azoAla 1), has been designed and synthesized for investigation of the photochemical regulation of the enzyme activity. The properties of photoisomerization and thermal stability of the cis-isomer were similar to those of a commonly used phenylazophenylalanine (azoAla 2). For photochemical control of the enzyme, these two azobenzene-bearing amino acids were incorporated into the specific position at the dimer interface of a restriction enzyme BamHI. These trans-azobenzene derivatives in the BamHI suppressed the enzymatic activity, and the following photoirradiation at 366 nm induced the recovery of its activity. Although the activities of both azoAla-BamHI mutants were same level after a long time irradiation, the recovery of the activity of azoAla 1-BamHI was faster than that of azoAla 2-BamHI with a short time irradiation. This result suggests that the negatively charged carboxylate group introduced into an azobenzene moiety affects the behavior of azoAla in the protein scaffold during the trans-cis photoisomerization.