Name: sequence-specific labeling of nucleic acids and proteins with methyltransferases and cofactor analogues
Uploaded: 2014-11-22T15:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Sequence-specific Labeling of Nucleic Acids and Proteins with Methyltransferases and Cofactor Analogues at JoVE.com

The authors thank Kerstin Glensk for preparing the MTases M.BseCI and Set7/9 and gratefully acknowledge funding by the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal and State Governments and RWTH Aachen University. The authors are happy to provide 6BAz and SeAdoYn or other cofactor analogues for collaborative research.

1. General Instructions
<ol>
	<li>Store aziridine cofactor 6BAz (in DMSO) and protein MTase Set7/9 at -80 &#176;C and all other reagents including double-activated cofactor SeAdoYn and DNA MTase M.BseCI (in 50% glycerol) at -20 &#176;C.</li>
	<li>Determine the concentration of 6BAz and SeAdoYn via UV/Vis spectroscopy using the extinction coefficients &#949;269nm&#160;(6BAz) = 16,000 cm-1 M-1 and &#949;260nm (SeAdoYn) = 15,400 cm-1 M-1 in deioniz...

One-step labeling of DNA with DNA MTases and aziridine cofactors (SMILing DNA) is a robust method but some aspects should be considered when planning the experiment.
Aziridine cofactor: The 6BAz concentration for DNA labeling with M.BseCI was 60 &#181;M. When using other DNA MTases the cofactor concentration should be optimized, e.g. concentrations as low as 20 &#181;M have been employed with the DNA MTase M.TaqI19. Low 6BAz concentrations have the advantage that a...

Specific labeling of nucleic acids1,2 and proteins3,4 is of major interest for functional characterizations, medical diagnosis and (nano)biotechnology. Here we present an enzymatic labeling method for these biopolymers which is based on S-adenosyl-l-methionine (AdoMet or SAM)-dependent methyltransferases (MTases). This class of enzymes (EC 2.1.1.) targets individual nucleophilic positions (nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and carbon atoms) within specific residues of nucleic acids and proteins and naturally transfers the activated methyl group of the cofactor AdoMet (Figure 1A)5. In addition, MTases can utilize synthetic cofactor analogues for specific labeling with affinity tags, fluorophores or other labels (Figure 1B)6. Two classes of AdoMet analogues have been developed: Aziridine cofactors for Sequence-specific Methyltransferase-Induced Labeling (SMILing)7 and double activated AdoMet analogues for methyltransferase-directed Transfer of Activated Groups (mTAG)8.
<img alt="Figure 1" fo:content-width="7in" src="/files/ftp_upload/52014/52014fig1highres.jpg" width="700" /> 
Figure 1: Reactions catalyzed by methyltransferases (MTases). A. Methyl group transfer from the natural cofactor AdoMet (SAM) to various substrates including DNA, RNA, proteins and small biomolecules. B. Labeling/functionalization of nucleic acids and proteins (NNNNN = base pairs for DNA, nucleotides for RNA and amino acids for proteins; XXXXX = recognition sequence of the MTase with target residue in green) with synthetic cofactor analogues. Aziridine cofactors containing a reporter group (blue sphere) attached to the adenine ring are sequence specifically coupled with the target residue (left) and double-activated AdoMet analogues lead to transfer of extended alkyl chains carrying a chemical reporter Y (right) which can be labeled by bioorthogonal click reaction in a second step. <a href="https://www.jove.com/files/ftp_upload/52014/52014fig1highres.jpg" target="_blank">Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.</a>
Aziridine cofactors work best with DNA MTases. They contain a three membered ring with a nitrogen atom9 (or an N-mustard10,11) instead of the sulfonium center as reactive group. Protonation of this nitrogen atom activates the aziridine ring for nucleophilic attack by the target nucleotide which leads to covalent coupling of the whole cofactor with DNA. By attaching reporter groups to the adenine ring the aziridine cofactors can be used in combination with DNA MTases to label DNA in one step (Figure 1B, left)7,12. This is demonstrated in detail for the biotinylation of DNA with 6BAz13&#8211;15 (aziridine cofactor with biotin attached to the 6 position of the adenine ring) and the adenine-specific DNA MTase from Bacillus stearothermophilus (M.BseCI)16 (Figure 2, see protocol section 2: One-step labeling of DNA via aziridine cofactors). In addition to M.BseCI (5&#8217;-ATCGAT-3&#8217; recognition sequence), the DNA MTases from Thermus aquaticus (M.TaqI, 5&#8217;-TCGA-3&#8217;), from Haemophilus heamolyticus (M.HhaI, 5&#8217;-GCGC-3&#8217;) and from Spiroplasma (M.SssI, 5&#8217;-CG-3&#8217;) have been successfully used to biotinylate DNA with 6BAz17. Furthermore, aziridine cofactors can be employed for one-step fluorescence DNA labeling18,19.
<img alt="Figure 2" fo:content-width="7in" src="/files/ftp_upload/52014/52014fig2highres.jpg" width="700" /> 
Figure 2: Sequence specific one-step biotinylation of DNA with M.BseCI and 6BAz. The DNA MTase M.BseCI recognizes the double-stranded DNA sequence 5&#8217;-ATCGAT-3&#8217; and naturally methylates the amino group of the second adenine residue (green) using AdoMet. With the aziridine cofactor 6BAz the course of the reaction is changed and M.BseCI leads to sequence specific DNA biotinylation by coupling the whole cofactor including biotin (blue) with the target adenine. <a href="https://www.jove.com/files/ftp_upload/52014/52014fig2highres.jpg" target="_blank">Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.</a>
Double activated AdoMet analogues contain extended unsaturated side chains instead of a methyl group at the sulfonium center (Figure 1B, right)20. The unsaturated double or triple bond in &#946;-position to the sulfonium center electronically compensates unfavorable steric effects within the transition state by conjugative stabilization. Since both the sulfonium center and the unsaturated bond activate the side chain for enzymatic transfer, these cofactors were named double-activated AdoMet analogues. Typically, they are used to transfer side chains with unique chemical groups (chemical reporters), like amino, alkyne and azide groups, for chemo-selective labeling in a second step8,21. In general, double-activated AdoMet analogues can not only function as cofactors for DNA MTases8,20,21 but also for RNA MTases22,23 and protein MTases24&#8211;28 allowing additional labeling of RNA and proteins. However, the extended side chains are sterically more demanding than a methyl group and enlarging the MTase active sites by protein engineering is often required to obtain efficient transfer rates. Another solution to this problem is to use an AdoMet analogue with a small propargyl group (three carbons) where the terminal alkyne serves two functions: 1. Stabilization of the transition state during enzymatic transfer and 2. reactive handle for following chemical modifications by copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) click chemistry. It turned out that the resulting propargylic AdoMet analogue29 is quite unstable under neutral or slightly basic conditions and only of limited use. This drawback can be fixed by replacing the sulfur atom with selenium. The resulting cofactor 5&#8216;-[(Se)[(3S)-3-amino-3-carboxypropyl]prop-2-ynylselenonio]-5&#8216;-deoxyadenosine (SeAdoYn, Figure 3) is accepted by wild-type DNA, RNA and protein MTases30&#8211;32 which abrogate the need for protein engineering in many cases. This is exemplified by fluorescence protein labeling with the histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) MTase Set7/933 (Figure 3, see protocol section 3: Two-step protein labeling via double activated cofactors).
<img alt="Figure 3" fo:content-width="7in" src="/files/ftp_upload/52014/52014fig3highres.jpg" width="700" /> 
Figure 3: Sequence-specific two-step fluorescence labeling of histone H3 with Set7/9, SeAdoYn and TAMRA azide. The protein MTase Set7/9 naturally methylates the amino group of lysine 4 in histone H3 (H3K4, green) using AdoMet. With the double-activated cofactor SeAdoYn the MTase transfers a small propargyl group (red) to the lysine residue. The attached terminal triple bond is then selectively modified in a bioorthogonal click reaction (copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition, CuAAC) with azide-derivatized TAMRA (tetramethylrhodamine, blue) fluorophore. <a href="https://www.jove.com/files/ftp_upload/52014/52014fig3highres.jpg" target="_blank">Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.</a>

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="669">
	<tbody>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Name of Reagent/ Equipment</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Company</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">Catalog Number</td>
			<td style="width:167px;">Comments/Description</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">6BAz</td>
			<td style="width:139px;"></td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td>Synthesized according to Weinhold et al., Patent number US 8,129,106, published March 6, 2012.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">&#946;-Mercaptoethanol</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Serva</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">28625</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Acetic acid</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">10304980</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Acrylamide/Bis Solution, 37.5:1</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Serva</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">10688</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">UltraPure Agarose</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Invitrogen</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">16500100</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Ammonium persulfate (APS)</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Serva</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">13375</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Bis-Tris</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Gerbu</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">1304</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Boric acid</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Gerbu</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">1115</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Bromophenol blue Na salt</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Serva</td>
			<td align="right">15375</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Copper(II) sulfate</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">C1297</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Chloroform</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td align="right">10020090</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Coomassie Brilliant Blue</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Serva</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">17525</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">EDTA disodium salt</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Gerbu</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">1034</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Ethanol</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Merck</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">100983</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">GelRed (10000x in water)</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Biotium</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">41003</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Glycerol (99.5%)</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Gerbu</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">2006</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">FastRuler Low Range DNA Ladder</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">SM1103</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Histone H3</td>
			<td style="width:139px;"></td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td>Expressionplasmid obtained from Dr. Philipp Voigt and Prof. Danny Reinberg; expression and isolation according to T. J. Richmond et al., J. Mol. Biol. 1997, 272, 301-311.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">M.BseCI</td>
			<td style="width:139px;"></td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td>Expressionplasmid obtained from Dr. Michael Kokkinidis; expression and isolation according to Kapetaniou et al., Acta Cryst. 2006, F63, 12-14.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Methanol</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">10675112</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Magnesiumchloride&#160; hexahydrate</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">J.T. Baker</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">4003</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">MOPS</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Gerbu</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">1081</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Sodium chloride</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Gerbu</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">1112</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">pH strip (Neutralit)</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Merck</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">1,095,330,001</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">pBR322</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">SD0041</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">R.TaqI (10u/&#181;l)</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td>ER0671</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">SeAdoYn</td>
			<td style="width:139px;"></td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td>Synthesized according to Willnow et al., ChemBioChem 2012, 13, 1167-1173.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Set7/9</td>
			<td style="width:139px;"></td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td>Expressionplasmid obtained from Prof. Danny Reinberg, expression and isolation according to D. Reinberg et al., Genes Dev.2002, 16, 479-489.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Streptavidin</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Gerbu</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">3058</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">(+)-Sodium L-ascorbate</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Sigma Life Science</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">A7631</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">SDS Granular</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Gerbu</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">1833</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">di-Sodiumhydrogenphosphat</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Merck</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">106,586</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">TAMRA-azide</td>
			<td style="width:139px;"></td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">TaqI buffer (10x)</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">B28</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="63">
			<td height="63" style="height:63px;width:245px;">N,N,N&#39;,N&#39;-Tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED)</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Acros Organics</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">42058</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Tris-HCl</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Gerbu</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">1028</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:245px;">Tris-X (TRIS-base)</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Gerbu</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">1018</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:245px;">Tris(3-hydroxypropyltriazolyl-methyl)amine (THPTA)</td>
			<td style="width:139px;">Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td align="right" style="width:119px;">762342</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

sequence-specific labeling of nucleic acids and proteins with methyltransferases and cofactor analogues

S-Adenosyl-l-methionine (AdoMet or SAM)-dependent methyltransferases (MTase) catalyze the transfer of the activated methyl group from AdoMet to specific positions in DNA, RNA, proteins and small biomolecules. This natural methylation reaction can be expanded to a wide variety of alkylation reactions using synthetic cofactor analogues. Replacement of the reactive sulfonium center of AdoMet with an aziridine ring leads to cofactors which can be coupled with DNA by various DNA MTases. These aziridine cofactors can be equipped with reporter groups at different positions of the adenine moiety and used for Sequence-specific Methyltransferase-Induced Labeling of DNA (SMILing DNA). As a typical example we give a protocol for biotinylation of pBR322 plasmid DNA at the 5&#8217;-ATCGAT-3&#8217; sequence with the DNA MTase M.BseCI and the aziridine cofactor 6BAz in one step. Extension of the activated methyl group with unsaturated alkyl groups results in another class of AdoMet analogues which are used for methyltransferase-directed Transfer of Activated Groups (mTAG). Since the extended side chains are activated by the sulfonium center and the unsaturated bond, these cofactors are called double-activated AdoMet analogues. These analogues not only function as cofactors for DNA MTases, like the aziridine cofactors, but also for RNA, protein and small molecule MTases. They are typically used for enzymatic modification of MTase substrates with unique functional groups which are labeled with reporter groups in a second chemical step. This is exemplified in a protocol for fluorescence labeling of histone H3 protein. A small propargyl group is transferred from the cofactor analogue SeAdoYn to the protein by the histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) MTase Set7/9 followed by click labeling of the alkynylated histone H3 with TAMRA azide. MTase-mediated labeling with cofactor analogues is an enabling technology for many exciting applications including identification and functional study of MTase substrates as well as DNA genotyping and methylation detection.

One-step Labeling of DNA via Aziridine Cofactors
This example reaction is carried out with the DNA MTase M.BseCI, which modifies the second adenine residue within the double-stranded 5&#8217;-ATCGAT-3&#8217; sequence and has one recognition site on the pBR322 plasmid (Figure 4A). To test plasmid labeling, pBR322 is challenged with the restriction endonuclease (REase) R.TaqI (5&#8216;-TCGA-3&#8216;). R.TaqI has seven sites on pBR322, one of which is in...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Sequence-specific Labeling of Nucleic Acids and Proteins with Methyltransferases and Cofactor Analogues at JoVE.com

Sequence-specific Labeling of Nucleic Acids and Proteins with Methyltransferases and Cofactor Analogues

DNA and proteins are sequence-specifically labeled with affinity or fluorescent reporter groups using DNA or protein methyltransferases and synthetic cofactor analogues. Depending on the cofactor specificity of the enzymes, aziridine or double activated cofactor analogues are employed for one- or two-step labeling.

S-Adenosyl-l-methionine (AdoMet or SAM)-dependent methyltransferases (MTase) catalyze the transfer of the activated methyl group from AdoMet to specific ...

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