This work has been founded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under grants CO822/2-1 (Emmy-Noether program) and CO822/3-1 to I.C.

1. Fluorescence-based Screening of Incorporation Efficiencies (Figure 1)
<ol>
	<li>Maintain HEK293 cells in Dulbecco&#39;s Modified Eagle&#39;s Medium (DMEM; high glucose, 4 mM glutamine, pyruvate) supplemented with 10 % (v/v) fetal bovine serum (FBS), 100 U/mL penicillin and 100 &#181;g/mL streptomycin at 37 &#176;C, 95 % humidity and 5 % CO2.</li>
	<li>Seed the cells the day before transfection.
	<ol>
		<li>Detach the cells for 5 min at 37 &#176;C in 0.05 % Trypsin/PBS supplem...

The authors have no conflicts to declare.

The protocol describes a simple and reliable assay to assess the efficiency of orthogonal pairs for the incorporation of ncAAs into proteins expressed in mammalian cells. The main advantage of this method in respect to widely used assays based on FACS is that it allows the simultaneous preparation and measurement of larger numbers of samples, and provides data that are easily analyzed using an ordinary software. The availability of a medium-throughput method to analyze orthogonal pairs in mammalian cells is very importan...

The genetic incorporation of chemical probes into proteins is a powerful method to facilitate investigation of structural and dynamic aspects of protein function directly in the native context of the live cell. Nowadays, hundreds of non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) equipped with the most disparate chemical groups can be site-specifically incorporated into proteins by biosynthesis1,2,3,4. Between them, one finds photo-sensitive ncAAs such as photo-crosslinkers5, photo-caged6,7,8,9 and photo-switchable amino acids10,11, amino acids bearing strained alkenes and alkynes for catalyst-free bioorthogonal chemistry2,12,13,14,15,16,17, amino acids carrying dansyl18, coumarin9,19, and prodan20,21 fluorophores, and amino acids equipped with other biophysical probes as well as with post translational modifications1,2,3,4,22,23,24,25.
The genetic encoding of a ncAA is enabled by a dedicated amino-acyl-tRNA-synthetase (AARS) paired to a cognate suppressor-tRNA, which incorporates the ncAA in response to an amber stop codon during the regular ribosomal synthesis. ncAARS/tRNA pairs are engineered so as to be orthogonal in the host organism, i.e. not cross-talk with the endogenous pairs. The technique is well established both in prokaryotic and eukaryotic hosts and easily applicable to mammalian cells. Pairs for ncAA incorporation in mammalian cells are based on three main orthogonal systems: the tyrosyl system, that combines the TyrRS from E. coli26 with a tyrosyl amber suppressor from B. stearothermophilus27 (EcTyrRS/BstYam pair), the E. coli leucyl system (EcLeuRS/tRNALeuCUA pair)6,18,28 and the archaeal pyrrolysyl system (PylRS/tRNAPyl pair)3, whereby the tRNAPyl is a natural amber suppressor. In general, each ncAA is recognized by a specialized ncAARS. Depending on the structure of the ncAA, the ncAARS is obtained via directed evolution of either TyrRS, LeuRS or PylRS, although some synthetases can accept more than one ncAA.
The orthogonal pair is imported into the cells by simply using a plasmid vector. Most common and efficient plasmids are bicistronic and encode both for the synthetase and the tRNA forming the orthogonal pair29. A second plasmid encoding for the protein of interest bearing an amber codon at the site designated for modification is co-transfected. The ncAA is simply added to the cell growth medium. However, different specialized groups often use different variants of plasmid constructs even for the incorporation of the same ncAA. Constructs differ in the arrangement of the genes in the vector, type of the synthetase, codon usage in the synthetase gene, promoter usage, variant of the tRNA and number of tRNA expression cassettes. Moreover, the incorporation efficiency of different ncAAs can vary drastically due to the different catalytic efficiency of the different synthetases, the quality of the tRNA, and other factors30. Therefore, it is important to have at hand a fast and reliable method to evaluate the efficiency of an orthogonal pair, both to choose the most suitable system for a desired application and to perform some optimization steps that improve overall protein expression yields.
We have established a simple and robust fluorescence-based assay to evaluate the efficiency of orthogonal pairs29 (Figure 1). In the assay, cells are co-transfected with the plasmid encoding for the orthogonal pair, together with a bicistronic reporter plasmid encoding both for the green fluorescent protein bearing an amber stop codon at a permissive position (EGFPTAG) and the mCherry gene. Red and green fluorescence of whole-cell lysates are read in separate channels on a plate reader in a 96-well plate. The intensity of the green fluorescence directly correlates with the efficiency of amber suppression, whereas the intensity of red fluorescence gives a direct estimate of the size of the measured sample and the transfection efficiency. With respect to similar assays based on fluorescence assisted cell sorting (FACS) read out31,32, the assay gives an immediate and comprehensive assessment of protein expression in the whole cell population, which is more representative of usual experimental conditions, and offers an easier data acquisition and processing with standard software. Overall, the main advantage of the assay is that a medium to a large number of samples can be analyzed in parallel. Using this assay, we have screened a rationally designed library of suppressor-tRNAs to improve the efficiency of the Pyl orthogonal system30. This work describes the experimental protocol to perform this assay and show examples of its application, including the optimization of the orthogonal pair for the incorporation of the photo-crosslinking ncAA p-azido-L-phenylalanine (Azi) and the comparison of incorporation efficiencies of different amino acids (Figure 2).
Over the last years, ncAA tools have been proven very powerful to investigate structural and functional aspects of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs)33,34,35,36,37,38. In humans, GPCRs form a large family of membrane receptors (800 members) and represent main targets for therapeutic drugs. Direct structural characterization of GPCRs is still challenging and complementary biochemical methods are highly needed for their investigation. We have pioneered the use of photo-crosslinking ncAAs to map GPCR surfaces and discover ligand binding pockets34. Using our optimized system for Azi incorporation, we systematically incorporated Azi throughout the whole juxtamembrane domain of a GPCR directly in live mammalian cells. Upon UV irradiation, Azi forms a highly reactive nitrene species that covalently captures neighboring molecules. When the ligand is added to the system, Azi serves as a proximity probe to reveal which positions of the receptor come close to the bound ligand. In this way, the binding mode of the neuropeptide hormone Urocortin I (Ucn1) on the class B GPCR corticotropin-releasing-factor receptor type 1 (CRF1R)33 was first unveiled. Lately, we have disclosed distinct binding patterns of agonists and antagonists on the same receptor38. A similar approach has been applied by others to reveal orthosteric and allosteric binding sites of other peptides and small molecule ligands on other GPCRs39,40,41,42. This manuscript describes the experimental protocol applied in our lab for photo-crosslinking mapping of GPCR surfaces. The method is relatively fast, straightforward and does not require any special equipment, so that it is applicable in standard biochemistry labs. Importantly, the approach provides a valuable tool not only to identify ligand binding sites where 3D structural data are scarce, but also to supplement existing in vitro data with information from fully post-translationally modified receptors in the physiological environment of the live cell.
The recent development of novel ncAAs bearing on the side chain chemical groups suitable for ultrafast catalyst-free bioorthogonal chemistry has opened up the possibility to install last-generation fluorophores for super-resolution imaging into proteins directly on the live cells2,43. Such chemical anchors include strained cyclooctyne in SCOK14, bicyclo[6.1.0]nonyne in BCNK12,17, and trans-cyclooctenes in TCO*K13,15,17 among other ncAAs harboring a norbornene16,17,44 or cyclopropene45,46 moiety. Bulky ncAAs for bioorthogonal chemistry are incorporated by a variant of the PylRS usually denoted as PylRSAF (indicating mutation Y271A and Y349F in M. barkeri PylRS), as well as by other ad hoc evolved ncAARSs17,44. The bioorthogonal anchors react with tetrazine reagents47 via inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder cycloaddition to give high labeling yields within a few minutes43,48. However, application of this powerful approach to label GPCRs has been challenging due to a low overall efficiency of the orthogonal ncAA incorporation system. Using our enhanced Pyl system, we have recently demonstrated high-yield incorporation of such amino acids into GPCRs and ultrafast GPCR labeling on the surface of live mammalian cells30. Labeled receptors were still functional, as they physiologically internalized upon activating the receptor with an agonist. The experimental protocol for the incorporation of bioorthogonal anchors into GPCRs and the following labeling steps are described here. Equipping GPCRs with small bright fluorophores is the first fundamental step toward the study of GPCR structural dynamics in the live cell via advanced microscopy techniques.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Chemicals</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Acryamide/Bisacrylamide 30% (37,5:1)</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>3029.1</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ammonium persulfate (APS)</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>9592.2</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>p-Azidophenylalanine (Azi)</td>
			<td>Bachem</td>
			<td>F-3075.0001</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Boric acid</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>B6768</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Bromphenolblue</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>B0126-25G</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Bovine serum albumine (BSA)</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>8076.2</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Carbobenzyloxy-L-lysine (Lys(Z))</td>
			<td>NovaBiochem</td>
			<td>8540430100</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cyclooctyne-L-lysine (SCOK)</td>
			<td>Sichem</td>
			<td>SC-8000</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DMEM</td>
			<td>Life Technologies</td>
			<td>41966052</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DMSO</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>A994.2</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DTT</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>6908.1</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>enhanced chemiluminescence reagent (ECL)&#160;</td>
			<td>home-made</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>10 mg/l luminol in 0.1 M Tris-HCl pH 8.6 ; 1100 mg/l&#160; p-coumaric acid in DMSO ; 30&#160;% H2O2 (1,000 : 100 : 0.3) [Quelle Laborjounal]</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>EDTA</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>8043.1</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>EGTA</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>3054.1</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>endo-bicyclo[6.1.0]nonyne-L-lysine (BCNK)</td>
			<td>Sichem</td>
			<td>SC-8014</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>FBS</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher (Gibco)</td>
			<td>10270106</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>FluoroBrite DMEM</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher (Gibco)</td>
			<td>A1896701</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Glycerol</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>7533.1</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Glycin</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>3908.3</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HEPES</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>9105.3</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Hoechst 33342</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>B2261</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>KCl</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>6781.3</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Lipofectamine 2000&#160;</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher</td>
			<td>11668019</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Luminol</td>
			<td>Applichem</td>
			<td>A2185,0005</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Methanol</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>0082.3</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>MgCl2</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>2189.2</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>NaCl</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>HN00.2</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Na-Lactate</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>71718-10G</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>NaOH</td>
			<td>Gr&#252;ssing</td>
			<td>121551000</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PBS</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>P5493-1L</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>p-Coumaric acid</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>C9008-1G</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>poly-D-lysine hydrobromide</td>
			<td>Corning</td>
			<td>354210</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PEI</td>
			<td>Polysciences</td>
			<td>23966</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Penicillin/Streptomycin</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher (Gibco)</td>
			<td>11548876 (15140-122)</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PMSF</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>6367.1</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PNGase F</td>
			<td>NEB</td>
			<td>P0704L</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Protease Inhibitor</td>
			<td>Roche</td>
			<td>11873580001</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PVDF membrane Immobilon-P</td>
			<td>Millipore</td>
			<td>IPVH00010</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Skim Milk Powder&#160;</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>70166</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>CN30.2</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tetrazine-Cy3</td>
			<td>Jena Bioscience</td>
			<td>CLK-014-05</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED)</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>2367.3</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>trans-Cyclooctene-L-lysine (TCO*K)</td>
			<td>Sichem</td>
			<td>SC-8008</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>TRIS</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>T1503</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Triton X-100</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>3051.4</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Trypsin 2.5%</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher (Gibco)</td>
			<td>15090046</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tween 20</td>
			<td>Carl Roth</td>
			<td>9127.2</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Wasserstoffperoxid (30%)</td>
			<td>Merck</td>
			<td>1.07210.0250</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cell lines</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HEK293 cells</td>
			<td>German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH (DSMZ)</td>
			<td>ACC-305</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HEK293T cells</td>
			<td>German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH (DSMZ)</td>
			<td>ACC-635</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Equipment</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Crosslinker Bio-Link 365 nm</td>
			<td>Bio-Budget Technologies GmbH</td>
			<td>40-BLX-E365</td>
			<td>5 x 8 Watt tubes</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Plate Reader BMG LABTECH FLUOstar Omega&#160;</td>
			<td>BMG LABTECH</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Plasmids</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Plasmid E2AziRS</td>
			<td>The huminized gene for E2AziRS was synthesized by Geneart (Life Technologies)</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Plasmid containing 4 tandem copies of the suppressor tRNA Bst-Yam driven by the human U6 promoter and one copy of a humanized gene for the enhanced variant of the Azi-tRNA synthetase (EAziRS) driven by a PGK promoter</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>POI-TAG mutant plasmids</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Plasmid encoding the POI driven by the CMV promoter, C-terminally fused to the FLAG-tag, bearing a TAG codon at the desired position&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>CRF1R-95TAG-EGFP</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Cloned in the MCS of pcDNA3.1</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HA-PTH1R-79TAG-CFP</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Cloned in the MCS of pcDNA3.1</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Arrestin3-FLAG</td>
			<td>Synthesized by Genart (Life Technologies)</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Cloned in the MCS of pcDNA3.1</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Antibodies</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anti-FLAG-HRP M2 antibody conjugate&#160;</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>A8592&#160;</td>
			<td>monoclonal, produced in mouse clone M2</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Goat-anti-rabbit-HRP antibody</td>
			<td>Santa Cruz</td>
			<td>sc-2004</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Rabbit-anti-CRF antibody</td>
			<td>home-made</td>
			<td>PBL #rC69</td>
			<td>polyclonal [Turnbull]</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Rabbit-anti-Ucn1 antibody</td>
			<td>home-made</td>
			<td>PBL #5779</td>
			<td>polyclonal [Turnbull]</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

optimizing the genetic incorporation of chemical probes into gpcrs for photo-crosslinking mapping and bioorthogonal chemistry in live mammalian cells

The genetic incorporation of non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) via amber stop codon suppression is a powerful technique to install artificial probes and reactive moieties onto proteins directly in the live cell. Each ncAA is incorporated by a dedicated orthogonal suppressor-tRNA/amino-acyl-tRNA-synthetase (AARS) pair that is imported into the host organism. The incorporation efficiency of different ncAAs can greatly differ, and be unsatisfactory in some cases. Orthogonal pairs can be improved by manipulating either the AARS or the tRNA. However, directed evolution of tRNA or AARS using large libraries and dead/alive selection methods are not feasible in mammalian cells. Here, a facile and robust fluorescence-based assay to evaluate the efficiency of orthogonal pairs in mammalian cells is presented. The assay allows screening tens to hundreds of AARS/tRNA variants with a moderate effort and within a reasonable time. Use of this assay to generate new tRNAs that significantly improve the efficiency of the pyrrolysine orthogonal system is described, along with the application of ncAAs to the study of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), which are challenging objects for ncAA mutagenesis. First, by systematically incorporating a photo-crosslinking ncAA throughout the extracellular surface of a receptor, binding sites of different ligands on the intact receptor are mapped directly in the live cell. Second, by incorporating last-generation ncAAs into a GPCR, ultrafast catalyst-free receptor labeling with a fluorescent dye is demonstrated, which exploits bioorthogonal strain-promoted inverse Diels Alder cycloaddition (SPIEDAC) on the live cell. As ncAAs can be generally applied to any protein independently on its size, the method is of general interest for a number of applications. In addition, ncAA incorporation does not require any special equipment and is easily performed in standard biochemistry labs.

The outline of the fluorescence assay is depicted in Figure 1. The assay is employed in three applications. In first place, a number of tRNA variants for incorporation of Lys(Boc) by the Pyl orthogonal pair are screened. Lys(Boc) is an amino acid sterically similar to Pyl. As Pyl is not commercially available, Lys(Boc) is commonly used as a standard substrate for the PylRS. The screened tRNAs are based on the tRNAPyl. Each tRNA variant bears mutati...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Optimizing the Genetic Incorporation of Chemical Probes into GPCRs for Photo-crosslinking Mapping and Bioorthogonal Chemistry in Live Mammalian Cells at JoVE.

Optimizing the Genetic Incorporation of Chemical Probes into GPCRs for Photo-crosslinking Mapping and Bioorthogonal Chemistry in Live Mammalian Cells

A facile fluorescence assay is presented to evaluate the efficiency of amino-acyl-tRNA-synthetase/tRNA pairs incorporating non-canonical amino-acids (ncAAs) into proteins expressed in mammalian cells. The application of ncAAs to study G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) is described, including photo-crosslinking mapping of binding sites and bioorthogonal GPCR labeling on live cells.

The genetic incorporation of non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) via amber stop codon suppression is a powerful technique to install artificial probes and ...

The overall goal of this protocol is to enhance the incorporation rate of non-canonical amino acids in mammalian cells to tackle biological questions in live cell settings including mapping of protein-protein interaction surfaces, and bioorthogonal labeling of surface receptors. Using amber codon suppression, different non-canonical amino acids are incorporated with different efficiencies. We established fluorescence assay to easily compare non-canonical amino acids incorporation rates in mammalian cells within a short time.The systematic incorporation of photo-crosslinking, non-canonical amino acids through our GPCR surfaces allows mapping of ligand binding sites and provides precious information of the intake receptor directly from the life cell. By incorporating last generation, non-canonical amino acids for bioorthogonal chemistry, we achieve site-specific, super fast, catalyst free labeling of GPCRs with small, bright fluorophores for high-end imaging applications in live mammalian cells. First, seed 600, 000 HEK 293 cells in two milliliters of complete growth medium per well in two six-well plates.Prepare as many wells as the number of samples and two additional wells for the wild type EGFP and a mock transfected sample respectively. One hour prior to transfection, add the appropriate amount of freshly prepared non-canonical amino acid stock solution to all wells for a final amino acid concentration of 0.25 to 0.5 millimolar. To transfect the cells, mix one microgram of plasmid DNA and coding for the synthetase t-RNA pair to be tested with one microgram of reporter plasmid DNA in a microcentrifuge tube.In separate tubes, prepare an identical transfection using the EGFP wild type reference and a mock transfection. Next, add 100 microliters of lactate buffered saline to each tube containing the DNA. After briefly mixing, add six microliters of one microgram per microliter PEI and lactate buffered saline to each tube.Vortex immediately, and then incubate at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer 400 microliters of cell medium from each well to the DNA PEI mixture to neutralize the pH. Then, dribble the DNA mixture onto the cells.Harvest the cells 48 hours post-transfection by aspirating the medium and rinsing the cells once with two milliliters of pre-warmed PBS. Add 800 microliters of PBS supplemented with 0.5 millimolar EDTA, and incubate for 20 minutes at 37 degrees Celsius. After incubation, detach and suspend the cells by pipetting up and down.Next, transfer the cell suspension into microcentrifuge tubes containing 200 microliters of PBS supplemented with five millimolar magnesium chloride. Centrifuge the samples for two minutes at 800 times gravity. When finished, discard the supernatant.Now, add 100 microliters of Tris lysis buffer to the cell pellets and incubate on ice for 30 minutes. To facilitate lysis, vortex every five minutes. Spin down the cell debris for 10 minutes at four degrees Celsius and 14, 000 times gravity.Transfer 90 microliters of the supernatant into black 96-well plates. Then, measure EGFP and mCherry fluorescence using a plate reader equipped with the fluorescence module. Seed 500, 000 293 t-cells in two milliliters of complete growth medium per well in two six-well plates.For each position to be screened, prepare one well per ligand, plus one well for the binding control. One hour prior to transfection, add the photo-crosslinker, p-azidophenylalanine, or Azi, to all wells to a final concentration of 0.5 millimolar. Transfect a total amount of two micrograms of DNA per well using one microgram of plasmid and coding for the flag tagged GPCR bearing a tag codon at the desired position, and one microgram of the plasmid and coding for the orthogonal pair dedicated to Azi.At 48 hours post-transfection, prepare a 1, 000x ligand stock solution by dissolving the peptide ligand at a concentration of 100 micromolar in DMSO. Dilute the ligand stock solution one to 1, 000 in binding buffer. Replace the cell medium with one milliliter of the ligand solution and incubate the samples for 10 minutes at room temperature.Following incubation, irradiate the cells for 20 minutes in a UV cross-linker at 365 nanometers and five centimeter distance to the cells. When finished, detach the cells by pipetting and transfer them into a microcentrifuge tube. Pellet the cells for three minutes at 800 times gravity.After discarding the supernatant, resuspend the cell pellets in 50 microliters of HEPES dissociation buffer, or HDB, containing a cocktail of protease inhibitors. Then, flash freeze the cells in liquid nitrogen. Next, thaw the cells in a water bath at 37 degrees Celsius for 30 to 45 seconds, and then vortex briefly.Pellet the membranes for 10 minutes at four degrees Celsius and 2500 times gravity. When finished, discard the supernatant which contains the bulk of cytosolic proteins. Thoroughly resuspend the pellets in 50 microliters of HEPES lysis buffer using a pipet.Then, lyse the cells for 30 minutes on ice, vortexing every five minutes. Following this, spin down the cell debris for 10 minutes at four degrees Celsius and 14, 000 times gravity. Immediately transfer each supernatant to a fresh reaction tube for western blot analysis.When the GPCR is glycosylated and faint or smeared bands are a problem in western blot analysis, deglycosylate the samples with PNGase F to increase signal intensity and sharpen the bands. Then, resolve the samples on standard SDS page and blot transfer proteins to a PVDF membrane. After blocking the membrane, probe it with an anti-ligand antibody to detect the occurrence of cross-linking.To detect the expression level of the Azi-GPCR, probe the membrane with a commercial anti-flag antibody. After washing the membrane, soak it in enhanced chemiluminescence solution, and visualize the signals in the dark. Seed 100, 000 HEK 293 t-cells in 600 microliters of dye-free, complete DMEM per well of a microscopy slide equipped with four wells.One hour prior to transfection, prepare a fresh 100 millimolar stock solution of TCOK and 0.2 molar sodium hydroxide and 15%DMSO. Mix three microliters of the TCOK stock solution with 12 microliters of one molar, pH 7.4 HEPES buffer. Gently add the solution to each well for a final TCOK concentration of 0.5 millimolar.In a microcentrifuge tube, dilute 200 nanograms of the plasmid and coding for the receptor containing the amber codon and 200 nanograms of the plasmid and coding for the orthogonal pair in 50 microliters of medium. Dilute 1.25 microliters of lipofectamine 2, 000 in 50 microliters of dye-free, serum-free, and antibiotic-free medium, and add the solution to the DNA solution. Vortex immediately and incubate for five to 10 minutes at room temperature.Then, add the DNA lipid complexes to the cells. At 24 hours post-transfection, transfer 100 microliters of medium from each well into a 1.5 milliliter reaction tube. Add 1.8 microliters of an orange fluorescent dye tetrazine stock solution, and 0.3 microliters of a DNA staining dye stock solution.Transfer the medium containing the dyes back to the well and incubate for five minutes at 37 degrees Celsius. Aspirate the medium, and gently rinse the cells twice with PBS to remove the excess dye. Then, add 600 microliters of pre-heated, complete dye-free growth medium to the cells.Now, visualize the labeled receptors under 63x magnification using filters appropriate for GFP orange fluorescent dye and DNA-staining dye. After adding peptide agonist stock solution to the cells, observe the internalization under the microscope using the aforementioned filters and take pictures after the clearly detectable occurrence of internalization. Different tRNA's give different suppression efficiency, which is clearly reflected in the amount of measured fluorescence.Azi incorporation into CRF1R was highly enhanced when using the codon-optimized Azi-tRNA synthetase gene compared to the native gene, showing that even a moderate improvement for a soluble protein can have a greater impact on the expression level of more challenging membrane proteins. The optimized system for Azi incorporation, including the humanized E2 Azi RS gene was deployed to map the binding pocket of the CRF1R and to find binding paths of five ligands. A band at the correct size of the crosslinking product in the western blot reveals that the position lies in the proximity of the ligand within the ligand receptor complex.Multiple crosslinking hits with all ligands tested revealed distinct binding patterns for the peptide Agonists and Antagonists. Both fluorescence and western blot data suggests that TCOK is the non-canonical amino acids for bioorthogonal chemistry that gets incorporated with the highest efficiency of the AF variant of the paralysine tRNA synthetase. TCOK was incorporated into a CRF1R EGFP fusion protein and enabled installing a small, bright fluorophore on the receptor.After adding a peptide Agaonist, fluorescent compartments were observed throughout the cytosol, revealing the physiological process of GPCR internalization. To do a fluorescence assay, we presented here is a simple and effective tool to evaluate and optimize the efficiency of a synthetase TI and API in mammalian cells. High incorporation rates are crucial for applying non-canonical amino acids to investigate challenging biological questions.Highly efficient incorporation of crosslinking non-canonical amino acids enables extensive surface mapping of virtually any protein, including membrane receptors or low-banded proteins. The method reveals the topology of interaction interfaces which can be further analyzed to obtain accurate molecular models. High incorporation efficiency of last generation, non-canonical amino acids for bioorthogonal chemistry allows us to equip GPCRs with small, bright fluorophores, thus leading the way towards the study of GPCRs structural dynamics in live cells via advanced microscopy techniques.

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Research

JoVE Journal

Chemistry

8.3K Görüntüleme.  University of Leipzig. The overall goal of this protocol is to enhance the incorporation rate of non-canonical amino acids in mammalian cells to tackle biological questions in live cell settings including mapping of protein-protein interaction surfaces, and bioorthogonal labeling of surface receptors. Using amber codon suppression, different non-canonical amino acids are incorporated with different efficiencies. We established fluorescence assay to easily compare non-canonical amino acids incorporation rates in mam...

Video: Optimizing the Genetic Incorporation of Chemical Probes into GPCRs for Photo-crosslinking Mapping and Bioorthogonal Chemistry in Live Mammalian Cells