Nucleotide Affinity Labels

Abstract

The purpose of this review is to present a summary of some recent work, all published within the last five years, on a group of nucleotide derivatives capable of forming covalent bonds with their biological receptor sites, i.e. nucleotide affinity labels (1,2). Although the use of such labels has as a primary objective the elucidation of aspects of receptor site structure, enzymatic mechanism, and regulation of enzymatic activity, the labels also have potential utility for the general area of enzyme engineering. Affinity labels provide useful information on synthetic methods for the modification of nucleotides and indicate for specific enzymes which structural modifications may be made without suppressing nucleotide binding. Furthermore, it is worth pointing out that the derivatives which can form covalent bonds to biological receptor sites also could form covalent bonds to suitable solid supports so that the derivatives discussed might be of use in the preparation of affinity columns.