Site-specific protein modification: advances and applications

Although chemical methods to modify proteins in a sequence-specific manner have yet to be developed, site-specific post-translational modification of proteins has recently emerged as a major focus in biological chemistry. Post-translational modification with functionalized substrate analogues opens up several unique avenues to induce selective reactivity into proteins in a sequence-specific manner, and can be applied to protein identification and manipulation in both in vitro and in vivo contexts. Further in vivo applications of this method will enable the imaging of cellular processes, avoiding nonspecific labeling and probe scattering, major complications observed in nonenzymatic methods. Additionally, new tools for in vitro protein modification have been developed that offer more versatile ways to study protein structure and function.