Directed evolution of a bacterial leucyl tRNA in mammalian cells for enhanced noncanonical amino acid mutagenesis

The E. coli leucyl-tRNA synthetase (EcLeuRS)/tRNA ^EcLeu pair has been engineered to genetically encode a structurally diverse group of enabling noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) in eukaryotes, including those with bioconjugation handles, environment-sensitive fluorophores, photocaged amino acids, and native post-translational modifications. However, the scope of this toolbox in mammalian cells is limited by the poor activity of tRNA ^EcLeu . Here, we overcome this limitation by evolving tRNA ^EcLeu directly in mammalian cells using a virus-assisted selection scheme. This directed evolution platform was optimized for higher throughput such that the entire acceptor stem of tRNA ^EcLeu could be simultaneously engineered, which resulted in the identification of several variants with remarkably improved efficiency for incorporating a wide range of ncAAs. The advantage of the evolved leucyl tRNAs was demonstrated by expressing ncAA mutants in mammalian cells that were challenging to express before using the wild-type tRNA ^EcLeu , by creating viral vectors that facilitated ncAA mutagenesis at a significantly lower dose, and by creating more efficient mammalian cell lines stably expressing the ncAA-incorporation machinery.