Abstract 1642 Splicing Sabotage: Disrupting Intein-Mediated Protein Splicing through Small Molecule Inhibitors

Inteins are intervening protein segments that excise themselves and ligate the flanking polypeptides, or exteins, to create a mature, functional protein. Some inteins facilitate protein splicing in trans, where the intein is separately expressed as two fragments that must associate before facilitating protein splicing. Nostoc punctiforme (Npu) is a cyanobacteria containing a naturally split DnaE intein, one of the most efficient trans-splicing inteins. We aim to find a small molecule inhibitor of this reassociation process in order to prevent splicing and the production of the functional DnaE protein.