Abstract
Synthetic biology is a broad and emerging discipline that capitalizes on recent advances in molecular biology, genetics, protein and RNA engineering as well as omics technologies. Together these technologies have transformed our ability to reveal the biology of the cell and the molecular basis of disease. This Special Issue on “Synthetic RNA and DNA Programming” features original research articles and reviews, highlighting novel aspects of basic molecular biology and the molecular mechanisms of disease that were uncovered by the application and development of novel synthetic biology-driven approaches.
Highlights
Synthetic biology is a broad and emerging discipline that capitalizes on recent advances in molecular biology, genetics, protein and RNA engineering, as well as omics technologies
The approaches highlighted here involve programming genes, RNAs, and proteins, both in the test tube and in living cells, to explore areas of molecular biology related to genetic code evolution [1,2]
The contributed articles cluster into four thematic categories: genetic code expansion, genetic code evolution, novel genetic systems and molecular tools, and RNA programming
Summary
Genetic code expansion studies focus on methods that enable the production of proteins with amino acids beyond the canonical or standard genetically encoded amino acids. Balasuriya et al used the phosphoserine system to produce highly active human kinases with programmed phosphorylation from facile Escherichia coli expression systems [7] The authors used these reagents to identify a specific phosphorylation site on protein kinase B (Akt1) that interferes with a clinically relevant kinase inhibitor. This review article addressed two ‘fundamentally different translation systems’ that evolved in natural organisms These include the systems that genetically encode selenocysteine and pyrrolysine, the so-called 21st and 22nd amino acids. Antibiotic development is a matter of urgent clinical need and one of the most promising areas is related to the development of synthetic cyclic peptides These compounds are often inspired by natural products, but through the use of genetic code expansion, ncAAs can be included in these antibiotic peptides [4]. The review article from Gang et al focused on methods for peptide cyclization and applications of cyclic peptides
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