Light-activated tetrazines enable precision live-cell bioorthogonal chemistry.

ABSTRACT: Bioorthogonal cycloaddition reactions between tetrazines and strained dienophiles are widely used for protein, lipid and glycan labelling because of their extremely rapid kinetics. However, controlling this chemistry in the presence of living mammalian cells with a high degree of spatial and temporal precision remains a challenge. Here we demonstrate a versatile approach to light-activated formation of tetrazines from photocaged dihydrotetrazines. Photouncaging, followed by spontaneous transformation to reactive tetrazine, enables live-cell spatiotemporal control of rapid bioorthogonal cycloaddition with dienophiles such as trans-cyclooctenes. Photocaged dihydrotetrazines are stable in conditions that normally degrade tetrazines, enabling efficient early-stage incorporation of bioorthogona

SUBMITTER: Liu L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10198265 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature