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A Chiral Lanthanide Tag for Stable and Rigid Attachment to Single Cysteine Residues in Proteins for NMR, EPR and Time‐Resolved Luminescence Studies
Author(s) -
Herath Iresha D.,
Breen Colum,
Hewitt Sarah H.,
Berki Thomas R.,
Kassir Ahmad F.,
Dodson Charlotte,
Judd Martyna,
Jabar Shereen,
Cox Nicholas,
Otting Gottfried,
Butler Stephen J.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.202101143
Subject(s) - electron paramagnetic resonance , chemistry , luminescence , cysteine , lanthanide , nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy , crystallography , stereochemistry , nuclear magnetic resonance , ion , materials science , enzyme , organic chemistry , physics , optoelectronics
A lanthanide‐binding tag site‐specifically attached to a protein presents a tool to probe the protein by multiple spectroscopic techniques, including nuclear magnetic resonance, electron paramagnetic resonance and time‐resolved luminescence spectroscopy. Here a new stable chiral Ln III tag, referred to as C12 , is presented for spontaneous and quantitative reaction with a cysteine residue to generate a stable thioether bond. The synthetic protocol of the tag is relatively straightforward, and the tag is stable for storage and shipping. It displays greatly enhanced reactivity towards selenocysteine, opening a route towards selective tagging of selenocysteine in proteins containing cysteine residues. Loaded with Tb III or Tm III ions, the C12 tag readily generates pseudocontact shifts (PCS) in protein NMR spectra. It produces a relatively rigid tether between lanthanide and protein, which is beneficial for interpretation of the PCSs by single magnetic susceptibility anisotropy tensors, and it is suitable for measuring distance distributions in double electron–electron resonance experiments. Upon reaction with cysteine or other thiol compounds, the Tb III complex exhibits a 100‐fold enhancement in luminescence quantum yield, affording a highly sensitive turn‐on luminescence probe for time‐resolved FRET assays and enzyme reaction monitoring.