Novel 1:1 Labeling and Purification Process for C-Terminal Thioester and Single Cysteine Recombinant Proteins Using Generic Peptidic Toolbox Reagents

We developed a versatile set of chemical labeling reagents which allow dye ligation to the C-terminus of a protein or a single internal cysteine and target purification in a simple two-step process. This simple process results in a fully 1:1 labeled conjugate suitable for all quantitative fluorescence spectroscopy and imaging experiments. We refer to a “generic labeling toolbox” because of the flexibility to choose one of many available dyes, spacers of different lengths and compositions which increase the target solubility, a variety of affinity purification tags, and different cleavage chemistries to release the 1:1 labeled proteins. Studying protein function in vitro or in the context of live cells and organisms is of vital importance in biological research. Although label free detection technologies gain increasing interest in molecular recognition science, fluorescence spectroscopy is still the most often used detection technique for assays and screens both in academic as well as in industrial groups...