Modification of folded proteins at will, within any sequence context, remains an elusive goal. A proteome-wide screening approach has now identified a set of protein ligases that enables conjugation of peptides to almost any protein N terminus, overcoming longstanding limitations in protein engineering.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Weeks, A.M. & Wells, J.A. Nat. Chem. Biol. 14, 50–57 (2018).
Hermanson, G.T. Bioconjugation Techniques (Elsevier, 2013).
Popp, M.W. & Ploegh, H.L. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 50, 5024–5032 (2011).
Nguyen, G.K. et al. Nat. Chem. Biol. 10, 732–738 (2014).
Chang, T.K., Jackson, D.Y., Burnier, J.P. & Wells, J.A. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91, 12544–12548 (1994).
Nuijens, T. et al. Adv. Synth. Catal. 358, 4041–4048 (2016).
Schmidt, M., Toplak, A., Quaedflieg, P.J. & Nuijens, T. Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 38, 1–7 (2017).
Henager, H.H. et al. Nat. Methods 13, 925–927 (2016).
Schilling, O. & Overall, C.M. Nat. Biotechnol. 26, 685–694 (2008).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The author declares no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Becker, C. Finding the best ligase. Nat Chem Biol 14, 2–3 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2533
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2533
- Springer Nature America, Inc.