The Benzyl Ester Group of Amino Acid Monomers Enhances Substrate Affinity and Broadens the Substrate Specificity of the Enzyme Catalyst in Chemoenzymatic Copolymerization

The chemoenzymatic polymerization of amino acid monomers by proteases involves a two-step reaction: the formation of a covalent acyl-intermediate complex between the protease and the carboxyl ester group of the monomer and the subsequent deacylation of the complex by aminolysis to form a peptide bond. Although the initiation with the ester group of the monomer is an important step, the influence of the ester group on the polymerization has not been studied in detail. Herein, we studied the effect of the ester groups (methyl, ethyl, benzyl, and tert-butyl esters) of alanine and glycine on the synthesis of peptides using papain as the catalyst. Alanine and glycine were selected as monomers because of their substantially different affinities toward papain. The efficiency of the polymerization of alanine and glycine benzyl esters was much greater than that of the other esters. The benzyl ester group therefore allowed papain to equally polymerize alanine and glycine, even though the affinity of alanine toward papain is substantially higher. The characterization of the copolymers of alanine and glycine in terms of the secondary structure and thermal properties revealed that the thermal stability of the peptides depends on the amino acid composition and resultant secondary structure. The current results indicate that the nature of the ester group drastically affects the polymerization efficiency and broadens the substrate specificity of the protease.