Telluromethionine Explained

Telluromethionine (sometimes shortened to TeMet^[1]) is a rare and natural amino acid.^[2] It is a heavy analog of methionine and selenomethionine containing tellurium. Telluromethionine has been suggested as a probe for structural biochemistry, as it can be incorporated into proteins and used for X-ray crystallography and NMR measurements.^[3]

In aqueous solutions, telluromethioning oxidizes to a telluroxide, but can be recovered by use of DTT. Telluromethionine is not very stable in wheat germ extract, which impacts its translation rate. In the extract, elemental tellurium seems to form, suggesting a degradation mechanism, but this is not well understood. However, enriching proteins with tellurium in auxotrophic E. coli was successfully used to express several recombinant proteins.^[4]

Notes and References

1. Ogra . Yasumitsu . Kitaguchi . Takashi . Suzuki . Noriyuki . Suzuki . Kazuo T. . 2008-01-01 . In vitro translation with [34S]-labeled methionine, selenomethionine, and telluromethionine ]. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry . en . 390 . 1 . 45–51 . 10.1007/s00216-007-1546-y . 17846751 . 1618-2650.
2. Moroder . Luis . Musiol . Hans-Jürgen . Amino acid chalcogen analogues as tools in peptide and protein research . Journal of Peptide Science . Wiley . 26 . 2 . 2019-12-19 . e3232 . 1075-2617 . 10.1002/psc.3232 . 31856429 . 21.11116/0000-0005-A122-E . free .
3. Boles . J O . Lebioda . L . Dunlap . R B . Odom . J D . 1995-01-01 . Telluromethionine in structural biochemistry . SAAS Bulletin, Biochemistry and Biotechnology . 8 . 29–34 . 1052-6781 . 7546573.
4. Budisa . Nediljko . Karnbrock . Wilhelm . Steinbacher . Stefan . Humm . Andreas . Prade . Lars . Neuefeind . Torsten . Moroder . Luis . Huber . Robert . 1997-07-25 . Bioincorporation of telluromethionine into proteins: a promising new approach for X-ray structure analysis of proteins11Edited by K. Nagai . Journal of Molecular Biology . 270 . 4 . 616–623 . 10.1006/jmbi.1997.1132 . 9245591 . 0022-2836.