麻豆传媒色情片

Journal News

Review delves into proximity proteomics

Laurel Oldach
April 20, 2020

In a recent in 麻豆传媒色情片 & Cellular Proteomics, Payman Samavarchi–Tehrani and colleagues in the at Sinai Health Systems and the University of Toronto offer an introduction to proximity-dependent biotinylation, a key first step in proximity proteomics. The authors give researchers who are new to the field information about the natural history of biotinylation enzymes. They also offer insights into the mechanisms of these enzymes and new perspectives on future proximity proteomics experiments.

Traditional proteomics can provide information about the quantitative contents of a cell or tissue, but it sacrifices much information on the spatial organization of proteins within cells. Since protein activity often depends on location and interactions with other proteins, researchers have developed approaches such as proximity proteomics to obtain information about the environs of a protein of interest. Proximity proteomics methods developed in the past 10 years depend on fusing the protein of interest to an enzyme that will label nearby proteins with a chemical tag that then can be purified. After purification, mass spectrometry identifies the tagged proteins.

Most often, the chemical tag is biotin, a cofactor that is key to carboxylase enzyme activity in several metabolic pathways. Two types of enzyme are used for proximity-dependent biotinylation: peroxidases, used for methods such as APEX, and biotin ligases, used for methods such as BioID.

Proxprotimage-835x195.jpg
Samavarchi–Tehrani et al./MCP
A schematic diagram shows the proximity proteomics workflow. A bait protein is tagged with a biotinylation enzyme (center of concentric circles), which allows for covalent labeling of proteins in its vicinity with a reactive biotin intermediate. Then the researcher lyses the cells and uses streptavidin to extract biotin-tagged proteins, digests those proteins and uses mass spectrometry to determine their identity.

Ordinarily, biotin ligases append biotin to the carboxylases that need it as a cofactor. Biotin ligases found in cells have high specificity for their substrate proteins, but certain mutations reduce that specificity by decreasing the ligase enzyme’s affinity for a reactive intermediate. Such mutants lose their grip on the cofactor and can release a reactive biotin that can bind the next amine group it encounters — often on a nearby protein. When researchers pull down biotin after this reaction occurs, they can determine what proteins were localized in the neighborhood of the biotin ligase and, by extension, the protein it was tethered to.

The second enzyme family, the peroxidases, evolved to convert hydrogen peroxide to water by redox chemistry. In the presence of a biotin–phenol substrate and hydrogen peroxide, they can make a short-lived free radical that reacts with certain amino acid side chains, once again tagging nearby proteins for later identification.

As proximity proteomics has grown in popularity, both types of enzyme have been the targets of extensive engineering and molecular evolution to coax them toward the activity profiles users want. The authors review the available enzymes and discuss experimental design considerations, such as choice of control conditions and how to get rid of what they call “frequent flyer” proteins that often are isolated nonspecifically.

Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?

Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition monthly.

Learn more
Laurel Oldach

Laurel Oldach is a former science writer for the ASBMB.

Get the latest from ASBMB Today

Enter your email address, and we鈥檒l send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.

Latest in Science

Science highlights or most popular articles

How scientists identified a new neuromuscular disease
Feature

How scientists identified a new neuromuscular disease

Aug. 14, 2025

NIH researchers discover Morimoto鈥揜yu鈥揗alicdan syndrome, after finding shared symptoms and RFC4 gene variants in nine patients, offering hope for faster diagnosis and future treatments.

Unraveling cancer鈥檚 spaghetti proteins
Profile

Unraveling cancer鈥檚 spaghetti proteins

Aug. 13, 2025

MOSAIC scholar Katie Dunleavy investigates how Aurora kinase A shields oncogene c-MYC from degradation, using cutting-edge techniques to uncover new strategies targeting 鈥渦ndruggable鈥 molecules.

How HCMV hijacks host cells 鈥 and beyond
Profile

How HCMV hijacks host cells 鈥 and beyond

Aug. 12, 2025

Ileana Cristea, an ASBMB Breakthroughs webinar speaker, presented her research on how viruses reprogram cell structure and metabolism to enhance infection and how these mechanisms might link viral infections to cancer and other diseases.

Understanding the lipid link to gene expression in the nucleus
Profile

Understanding the lipid link to gene expression in the nucleus

Aug. 11, 2025

Ray Blind, an ASBMB Breakthroughs speaker, presented his research on how lipids and sugars in the cell nucleus are involved in signaling and gene expression and how these pathways could be targeted to identify therapeutics for diseases like cancer.

Receptor antagonist reduces age-related bone loss in mice
Journal News

Receptor antagonist reduces age-related bone loss in mice

Aug. 6, 2025

Receptor antagonist reduces bone loss and promotes osteoblast activity in aging mice, highlighting its potential to treat osteoporosis. Read more about this recent JBC paper.

Engineered fusion protein targets kiwifruit pathogen
Journal News

Engineered fusion protein targets kiwifruit pathogen

Aug. 6, 2025

Synthetic protein selectively kills kiwifruit pathogen, offering a promising biocontrol strategy for agriculture. Read more about this recent JBC paper.