One-pot chemical synthesis of small ubiquitin-like modifier protein-peptide conjugates using bis(2-sulfanylethyl)amido peptide latent thioester surrogates

Nat Protoc. 2015 Feb;10(2):269-92. doi: 10.1038/nprot.2015.013. Epub 2015 Jan 15.

Abstract

Small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) post-translational modification (PTM) of proteins has a crucial role in the regulation of important cellular processes. This protocol describes the chemical synthesis of functional SUMO-peptide conjugates. The two crucial stages of this protocol are the solid-phase synthesis of peptide segments derivatized by thioester or bis(2-sulfanylethyl)amido (SEA) latent thioester functionalities and the one-pot assembly of the SUMO-peptide conjugate by a sequential native chemical ligation (NCL)/SEA native peptide ligation reaction sequence. This protocol also enables the isolation of a SUMO SEA latent thioester, which can be attached to a target peptide or protein in a subsequent step. It is compatible with 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc) chemistry, and it gives access to homogeneous, reversible and functional SUMO conjugates that are not easily produced using living systems. The synthesis of SUMO-peptide conjugates on a milligram scale takes 20 working days.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Chemistry Techniques, Synthetic*
  • Fluorenes
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Peptides / chemical synthesis*
  • Peptides / chemistry
  • Protein Processing, Post-Translational
  • Solid-Phase Synthesis Techniques
  • Sumoylation
  • Ubiquitin / chemistry*

Substances

  • 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl
  • Fluorenes
  • Peptides
  • Ubiquitin