How do you study the 90% of proteins that lack small-molecule binding partners? By tagging the protein! The problem is that most tags are too bulky, like trying to study a butterfly ๐ฆ with a bowling ball attached. To address this limitation, researchers at the Broad Institute developed two novel protein tags which were published…
DNA methyltransferases (MTases) can recognize specific DNA sequences and transfer a methyl group from the S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) cofactor to a target nucleobase. This ability has been exploited for sequence-specific DNA labeling using synthetic SAM analogues (SMILing, mTAG). However, both approaches (SMILing and mTAG) share following limitations:๐ธ The SAM analogues are chemically reactive (labile aziridine rings…
Induced proximity is more than ubiquitination and targeted protein degradation. In the recent literature we have seen proximity-inducing modalities for phosphorylation and dephosphorylation, deubiquitination, glycosylation and more. ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐น๐ถ๐บ๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ปHowever, when we induce proximity between our protein of interest (POI) and an effector protein, it can be counterproductive to use inhibitory ligands for recruitment of the…