Live-Cell Protein Sulfonylation Based on Proximity-driven N-Sulfonyl Pyridone Chemistry.

The development of bioorthogonal approaches for labeling of endogenous proteins under the multimolecular crowding conditions of live cells is highly desirable for the analysis and engineering of proteins without using genetic manipulation. N-Sulfonyl pyridone (SP) is reported as a new reactive group for protein sulfonylation. The ligand-directed SP chemistry was able to modify not only purified proteins in vitro, but also endogenous ones on the surface of and inside live cells selectively and rapidly, which allowed to convert endogenous proteins to FRET-based biosensors in situ.