核糖体按照信使RNA指定的氨基酸序列来构建蛋白质。在这里，研究人员设计、合成了一个小分子机器，该机器沿着的分子链按照序列特异性方式进行多肽合成。该小分子机器的化学结构是基于一个轮烷，分子环拧到一个分子桥。环带有硫醇盐基团，可以反复按照特定顺序删除氨基酸，并将它们运送到的多肽 生长延长位点。实验结果表明大约有1018的小分子机器在并行进行合成；这一过程会产生毫克量级多肽。串联质谱实验确认只产生了单一多肽序列。

核糖体按照信使RNA指定的氨基酸序列来构建蛋白质。在这里，研究人员设计、合成了一个小分子机器，该机器沿着的分子链按照序列特异性方式进行多肽合成。该小分子机器的化学结构是基于一个轮烷，分子环拧到一个分子桥。环带有硫醇盐基团，可以反复按照特定顺序删除氨基酸，并将它们运送到的多肽 生长延长位点。实验结果表明大约有10¹⁸的小分子机器在并行进行合成；这一过程会产生毫克量级多肽。串联质谱实验确认只产生了单一多肽序列。

英文全文见：

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6116/189.full

Sequence-Specific Peptide Synthesis by an Artificial Small-Molecule Machine

1. Bartosz Lewandowski¹, 
2. Guillaume De Bo¹, 
3. John W. Ward¹, 
4. Marcus Papmeyer¹, 
5. Sonja Kuschel¹,
6. María J. Aldegunde², 

1. Philipp M. E. Gramlich², 
2. Dominik Heckmann², 
3. Stephen M. Goldup², 
4. Daniel M. D’Souza²,
5. Antony E. Fernandes², 
6. David A. Leigh¹,²,*

The ribosome builds proteins by joining together amino acids in an order determined by messenger RNA. Here, we report on the design, synthesis, and operation of an artificial small-molecule machine that travels along a molecular strand, picking up amino acids that block its path, to synthesize a peptide in a sequence-specific manner. The chemical structure is based on a rotaxane, a molecular ring threaded onto a molecular axle. The ring carries a thiolate group that iteratively removes amino acids in order from the strand and transfers them to a peptide-elongation site through native chemical ligation. The synthesis is demonstrated with ~10¹⁸ molecular machines acting in parallel; this process generates milligram quantities of a peptide with a single sequence confirmed by tandem mass spectrometry.