Site Specific Lysine Acetylation of Histones for Nucleosome Reconstitution using Genetic Code Expansion in Escherichia coli. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Acetylated histone proteins can be easily expressed in Escherichia coli encoding a mutant, N-acetyl-lysine (AcK)-specific Methanosarcina mazi pyrrolysine tRNA-synthetase (MmAcKRS1) and its cognate tRNA (tRNAPyl) to assemble reconstituted mononucleosomes with site specific acetylated histones. MmAcKRS1 and tRNAPyl deliver AcK at an amber mutation site in the mRNA of choice during translation in Escherichia coli. This technique has been used extensively to incorporate AcK at H3 lysine sites. Pyrrolysyl-tRNA synthetase (PylRS) can also be easily evolved to incorporate other noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) for site specific protein modification or functionalization. Here we detail a method to incorporate AcK using the MmAcKRS1 system into histone H3 and integrate acetylated H3 proteins into reconstituted mononucleosomes. Acetylated reconstituted mononucleosomes can be used in biochemical and binding assays, structure determination, and more. Obtaining modified mononucleosomes is crucial for designing experiments related to discovering new interactions and understanding epigenetics.

published proceedings

  • J Vis Exp

altmetric score

  • 0.25

author list (cited authors)

  • Rowlett, C. M., & Liu, W. R.

citation count

  • 0

complete list of authors

  • Rowlett, Chesley Marie||Liu, Wenshe Ray

publication date

  • December 2020