A Genetically Encoded Infrared Probe

摘要

The genetic incorporation of unnatural amino acids into proteins has proven a powerful technique for investigating structure and function in biological systems.The ability to site-specifically introduce infrared (IR) probes at defined sites in proteins in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms would further expand the utility of this method.In particular,the C ident to N stretching vibration is a useful probe since it is small and has a strong absorption in a region of the spectrum (approx 2200 cm~(-1)) that is free of other vibrational absorptions typically present in proteins.Furthermore,the C ident to N stretching frequency is sensitive to subtle changes in local environment,as well as changes due to nitrogen interaction with metal ions.