Angewandte
Chemie
to a complementary DNA as the “capture probe (CP, shown
in blue)”. After BP/CP hybridization, irradiation triggers
DNA-templated photocrosslinking of CP to covalently cap-
ture the protein. DPAL decouples SM binding from cross-
linking/tagging. The crosslinking group can be flexibly
adjusted by DNA hybridization. In DPAL, only a single
modification (for DNA conjugation) on the SM is needed and
only a single BP is necessary, as BP can be paired with
multiple CPs for different purposes. Importantly, the intro-
duction of DNA provides multiplexing capability.
We first addressed an important issue in affinity labeling:
nonspecific crosslinking, a particularly severe issue for label-
ing low-abundance/low-affinity proteins when a high probe
concentration is necessary.[10] It is well known that the salt
concentration can affect specific and nonspecific molecular
interactions, such as protein–DNA,[11] protein–protein,[12]
protein–ligand,[13] and protein–matrix interactions.[14] Inter-
estingly, this phenomenon has not been widely exploited to
reduce nonspecific labeling by affinity probes. To test this
possibility, we first investigated photocrosslinking reactions
between a diazirine/fluorescein-labeled DNA probe (DZ/
FAM-CP, Figure 2) and bovine serum albumin (BSA),
a protein well-known for its extensive nonspecific interactions
with small molecules.[15] Significant BSA photocrosslinking by
DZ/FAM-CP was observed at concentrations > 5 mm in H2O
(Figure 2a, top); in sharp contrast, with additional salt (1 ꢀ
PBS + 0.1m NaCl), crosslinking was nearly completely sup-
pressed even with 100 mm DZ/FAM-CP (Figure 2a, bottom).
In HeLa cell lysate (alone or with purified BSA), crosslinking
was also suppressed by the added salt (Figure 2b, lanes 2 and
4), indicating this effect is not limited to BSA but rather
general to other cellular proteins. We also performed studies
regarding protein and salt concentrations, salt type, irradi-
ation time, and other types of probes. The results collectively
suggest the salt effect is quite general. The ionic strength
appears to be the only major effecting factor (see the
Supporting Information for details). This salt effect has
been implemented throughout experiments in this study.
Next, we examined whether specific SM–target interac-
tions can be identified by DPAL under elevated salt concen-
trations. First, we conjugated a small molecule LPCBS (1) to
the 5’-NH2 of a 27 bp DNA as the binding probe (LPCBS-BP)
to label its well-known target carbonic anhydrase II (CA-II,
purified, 10 mm, Kd = 0.9 nm for free 1)[16] with BSA (10 mm) as
the background. DNA conjugation at the C-terminus of
LPCBS retains its binding property.[17] A 15 bp DZ/FAM-CP
fully complementary to LPCBS-BP was prepared as the CP.
After BP binding, CP hybridization, and irradiation, a 24 bp
displacement DNA complementary to BP was added to
eliminate the possibility of forming a noncovalent complex of
protein-bound BP/CP duplex. As shown in Figure 3a, SDS-
PAGE results show DZ/FAM-CP labeled CA-II only in the
presence of complementary BP/CP after irradiation (Fig-
ure 3a, left panel, lanes 1–2). Even with excess probes
(20 mm), nonspecific BSA labeling
was not detected. All negative controls
(no irradiation, no BP, mismatched
BP/CP, BP without LPCBS, no CA-II,
denatured CA-II; Figure 3a, lanes 3–
8) gave no detectable CA-II or BSA
labeling, indicating the labeling
requires specific SM–protein binding
and DNA hybridization. As expected,
without added salt, significant BSA
labeling was observed (see Figure S2
in the Supporting Information). Next,
we mixed purified CA-II with Jurkat
cell lysate and performed similar
DPAL experiments with same
probes, again specific labeling was
observed despite the presence of
numerous cellular proteins and
excess probes (Figure 3a, center and
right panels). Encouraged by this
result, we performed DPAL experi-
ments on a series of SM–protein pairs
covering a wide range of binding
affinities (structures shown in Fig-
ure 3b)[17] with the same DPAL
experiment setup (purified proteins
Figure 2. Suppression of nonspecific crosslinking by elevated salt concentrations. a) Crosslinking
between BSA and DZ/FAM-CP in H2O and in 1ꢀPBS/0.1m NaCl, monitored by FAM. Lanes 1–7:
with irradiation (concentrations are as marked). Lane 8: no irradiation. Lane 9: PBS added after
irradiation in H2O. b) Photocrosslinking between BSA and DZ/FAM-CP in lysate (HeLa,
1.0 mgmLꢀ1,10 mg per lane; CP: 20 mm). Left: fluorescence. Right: silver stain. M: marker. Lanes 1
and 2: lysate only. Lanes 3 and 4: lysate+20 mm BSA. Lanes 5 and 6: lysate without irradiation.
The arrow indicates the position of BSA-CP conjugate.
in a BSA background); again similar
labeling performances were observed
(Figure 3c). In addition, incubation
with DNase I diminished the FAM
signal (lane 9), further confirming the
covalent labeling by DPAL probes.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 9544 –9549
ꢀ 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
9545