title: Chemical approaches for investigating phosphorylation in signal transduction networks.
abstract: The power and scope of chemical synthesis offer considerable opportunities to broaden the lexicon of chemical tools that can be implemented for the study of complex biological systems. To investigate individual signaling proteins and pathways, chemical tools provide a powerful complement to existing genetic, chemical genetic and immunologic methods. In particular, understanding phosphorylation-mediated signaling in real time yields important information about the regulation of cellular function and insights into the origin of disease. Recent advances in the development of photolabile caged analogs of bioactive species and fluorescence-based sensors of protein kinase activities are useful for investigating protein phosphorylation and the roles of phosphoproteins. Photolabile caged analogs allow spatial and temporal control over the release of a compound, while fluorescence-based sensors allow the real-time visualization of kinase activity. Here, we discuss recent advances that have increased the specificity and availability of these tools.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Deborah M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Rothman
authors.forename: Melissa D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Shults
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Imperiali
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D008956:Models, Chemical; D015335:Molecular Probes / Q000737:chemistry; D015394:Molecular Structure; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000737:chemistry; D010766:Phosphorylation; D010777:Photochemistry; D011494:Protein Kinases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D015335:Molecular Probes; D010455:Peptides; D010750:Phosphoproteins; C485192:green fluorescent protein, Aequorea victoria; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D011494:Protein Kinases