The Evolution of SNAP-Tag Labels
Rudolf Dreyer, Rueben Pfukwa, Stefan Barth, Roger Hunter, Bert Klumperman
Abstract
The conjugation of proteins with synthetic molecules can be conducted in many different ways. In this Perspective, we focus on tag-based techniques and specifically on the SNAP-tag technology. The SNAP-tag technology makes use of a fusion protein between a protein of interest and an enzyme tag that enables the actual conjugation reaction. The SNAP-tag is based on the O 6 -alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (AGT) enzyme and is optimized to react selectively with O 6 -benzylguanine (BG) substrates. BG-containing dye derivatives have frequently been used to introduce a fluorescent tag to a specific protein. We believe that the site-specific conjugation of polymers to proteins can significantly benefit from the SNAP-tag technology. Especially, polymers synthesized via reversible deactivation radical polymerization allow for the facile introduction of a BG end group to enable SNAP-tag conjugation.