Photo-lysine

Photo-lysine is designed and synthesized by adding a photo crosslinking agent (diazoheterocyclic amine) to the natural lysine side chain. Light lysine is easily integrated into proteins by native translation machines in mammals, and can be used to capture and identify proteins that recognize lysine post-translational modifications (PTMs), including "readers" and "erasers". Histone modified 'readers' and' scavengers'. Light lysine can bind with MDH2 and mediate photocrosslinking to fix protein-protein interactions in cells. In the presence of lysine, UV irradiation of cells can induce strong cross-linking between HSP90 β and HSP60. In the photocrosslinking process of these two partner proteins, the efficiency of photo lysine is higher than that of photo leucine. Light lysine can capture heterodimers of Ku70 and Ku80 in protein complexes. Light lysine can identify histones and chromatin binding proteins [1].

[1]. Yang T, et al. Photo-lysine captures proteins that bind lysine post-translational modifications. Nat Chem Biol. 2016 Feb;12(2):70-2.