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DNA tags used to image sugar-bearing proteins on cells

Methods for imaging sugars attached to proteins — the protein glycoforms — are of interest because glycoforms affect protein movement and localization in cells. A versatile approach is now reported that uses DNA as molecular identity tags.
  1. Tadashi Suzuki

    1. Tadashi Suzuki is in the Glycometabolic Biochemistry Laboratory, RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.

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The attachment of sugar molecules to proteins is one of the most common protein modifications, found in all domains of life. Sugars attached to proteins are called glycans, and modulate the physicochemical and physiological properties of the carrier proteins1. But tracking and visualizing glycoforms — the specific patterns of sugars attached to a protein — in cells is challenging, particularly if you want to visualize several different glycoforms at once. Writing in Angewandte Chemie, Li et al.2 now report a method for doing this that relies on the dynamic interactions of a set of DNA codes.

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Nature 561, 38-40 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-06092-y

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