Photo-lysine captures proteins that bind lysine post-translational modifications
December 21st, 2015 by Tangpo Yang
Nature Chemical Biology 12, 70 (2016). doi:10.1038/nchembio.1990
Authors: Tangpo Yang, Xiao-Meng Li, Xiucong Bao, Yi Man Eva Fung & Xiang David Li
Post-translational modifications (PTMs) have key roles in regulating protein-protein interactions in living cells. However, it remains a challenge to identify these PTM-mediated interactions. Here we develop a new lysine-based photo-reactive amino acid, termed photo-lysine. We demonstrate that photo-lysine, which is readily incorporated into proteins by native mammalian translation machinery, can be used to capture and identify proteins that recognize lysine PTMs, including 'readers' and 'erasers' of histone modifications.