Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Synthetic biology

Two-for-one designer labels

Labelling of proteins with pairs of fluorophores enables their conformations to be studied; however, complete incorporation of labels in multiple, pre-defined locations is very difficult. Now, a combination of double unnatural amino acid mutagenesis and selective chemical modification offers a general method to achieve this.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Efficient double labelling of a protein for FRET studies is made possible by orthogonal machinery for unnatural amino acid incorporation and orthogonal chemical reactions.

References

  1. Sahoo, H. J. Photochem. Photobiol. C 12, 20–30 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Forster, T. Discuss. Faraday Soc. 27, 7–17 (1959).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Wang, K. et al. Nature Chem. 6, 393–403 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Liu, C. C. & Schultz, P. G. Ann. Rev. Biochem. 79, 413–444 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Neumann, H., Wang, K. H., Davis, L., Garcia-Alai, M. & Chin, J. W. Nature 464, 441–444 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Debets, M. F., van Hest, J. C. M. & Rutjes, F. P. J. T. Org. Biomol. Chem. 11, 6439–6455 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Henriques, R., Griffiths, C., Rego, E. H. & Mhlanga, M. M. Biopolymers 95, 322–331 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Roy, R., Hohng, S. & Ha, T. Nature Methods 5, 507–516 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Sundstrom, V. Ann. Rev. Phys. Chem. 59, 53–77 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Piston, D. W. & Kremers, G.-J. Trends Biochem. Sci. 32, 407–414 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to E. James Petersson.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Petersson, E., Warner, J. Two-for-one designer labels. Nature Chem 6, 379–381 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1935

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1935

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing