Review abstract
Nature Chemical Biology 1, 13 - 21 (2005)
doi:10.1038/nchembio0605-13
Chemistry in living systems
Jennifer A Prescher1 & Carolyn R Bertozzi1,2,3,4
Abstract
Dissecting complex cellular processes requires the ability to track biomolecules as they function within their native habitat. Although genetically encoded tags such as GFP are widely used to monitor discrete proteins, they can cause significant perturbations to a protein's structure and have no direct extension to other classes of biomolecules such as glycans, lipids, nucleic acids and secondary metabolites. In recent years, an alternative tool for tagging biomolecules has emerged from the chemical biology community—the bioorthogonal chemical reporter. In a prototypical experiment, a unique chemical motif, often as small as a single functional group, is incorporated into the target biomolecule using the cell's own biosynthetic machinery. The chemical reporter is then covalently modified in a highly selective fashion with an exogenously delivered probe. This review highlights the development of bioorthogonal chemical reporters and reactions and their application in living systems.
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
- Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Correspondence to: Carolyn R Bertozzi1,2,3,4 e-mail: crb@berkeley.edu
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