Site specific protein labeling by enzymatic posttranslational modification.

Site specific protein labeling plays a key role in elucidating the function of the proteins at the molecular level by revealing their locations in the cell, their interaction networks with other cellular components and the dynamic mechanisms of their bio-generation, trafficking and degradation in response to regulatory signals in a biological system. Site specific protein labeling is, in essence, artificial modification of proteins with new chemical entities at the posttranslational stage. Based on the analogy between protein labeling and protein posttranslational modification, enzymatic tools have been developed for site specific and efficient labeling of target proteins with chemical probes of diverse structures and functionalities. This perspective surveys a number of protein labeling methods based on the application of protein posttranslational modification enzymes.