Nature Biotechnology
21, 86 - 89 (2002)
Published online: 9 December 2002; | doi:10.1038/nbt765
A general method for the covalent labeling of fusion proteins with small molecules in vivoAntje Keppler1, 2, 3, Susanne Gendreizig1, 2, 3, Thomas Gronemeyer1, 2, Horst Pick2, Horst Vogel2
& Kai Johnsson1, 21
Institute of Molecular and Biological Chemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland. 2
Institute of Biomolecular Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland. 3
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Correspondence should be addressed to Kai Johnsson kai.johnsson@epfl.chCharacterizing the movement, interactions, and chemical microenvironment of a protein inside the living cell is crucial to a detailed understanding of its function. Most strategies aimed at realizing this objective are based on genetically fusing the protein of interest to a reporter protein that monitors changes in the environment of the coupled protein. Examples include fusions with fluorescent proteins, the yeast two-hybrid system, and split ubiquitin1,
2,
3. However, these techniques have various limitations, and considerable effort is being devoted to specific labeling of proteins in vivo with small synthetic molecules capable of probing and modulating their function. These approaches are currently based on the noncovalent binding of a small molecule to a protein, the formation of stable complexes between biarsenical compounds and peptides containing cysteines, or the use of biotin acceptor domains4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10. Here we describe a general method for the covalent labeling of fusion proteins in vivo that complements existing methods for noncovalent labeling of proteins and that may open up new ways of studying proteins in living cells.
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