chemical biology Chemical biology is a scientific discipline spanning the fields of chemistry and biology. The discipline involves the application of chemical techniques, analysis, and often small molecules produced through synthetic chemistry, to the study and ma ...

, bioorthogonal chemical reporter is a non-native chemical functionality that is introduced into the naturally occurring biomolecules of a

living system Living systems are open self-organizing life forms that interact with their environment. These systems are maintained by flows of information, energy and matter. In the last few decades, some scientists have proposed that a general living systems ...

, generally through

metabolic Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cell ...

protein engineering Protein engineering is the process of developing useful or valuable proteins. It is a young discipline, with much research taking place into the understanding of protein folding and recognition for protein design principles. It has been used to imp ...

. These functional groups are subsequently utilized for tagging and visualizing

biomolecule A biomolecule or biological molecule is a loosely used term for molecules present in organisms that are essential to one or more typically biological processes, such as cell division, morphogenesis, or development. Biomolecules include large ...

Jennifer Prescher Jennifer Ann Prescher is an American chemist who is a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. Her research considers the development of bioorthogonal, bioluminescent tools for the noninvasive, real-time imaging of immunom ...

and Carolyn R. Bertozzi, the developers of bioorthogonal chemistry, defined bioorthogonal chemical reporters as "non-native, non-perturbing chemical handles that can be modified in living systems through highly selective reactions with exogenously delivered probes." It has been used to enrich proteins and to conduct proteomic analysis. In the early development of the technique, chemical motifs have to fulfill criteria of biocompatibility and selective reactivity in order to qualify as bioorthogonal chemical reporters. Some combinations of

proteinogenic Proteinogenic amino acids are amino acids that are incorporated biosynthetically into proteins during translation. The word "proteinogenic" means "protein creating". Throughout known life, there are 22 genetically encoded (proteinogenic) amino aci ...

amino acid side chains meet the criteria, as do ketone and aldehyde tags.

Azide In chemistry, azide is a linear, polyatomic anion with the formula and structure . It is the conjugate base of hydrazoic acid . Organic azides are organic compounds with the formula , containing the azide functional group. The dominant applic ...

s and

alkyne \ce \ce Acetylene \ce \ce \ce Propyne \ce \ce \ce \ce 1-Butyne In organic chemistry, an alkyne is an unsaturated hydrocarbon containing at least one carbon—carbon triple bond. The simplest acyclic alkynes with only one triple bond and n ...

s are other examples of chemical reporters. A bioorthogonal chemical reporter must be incorporated into a

. This occurs via metabolism. The chemical reporter is linked to a

substrate Substrate may refer to: Physical layers *Substrate (biology), the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the surface or medium on which an organism grows or is attached ** Substrate (locomotion), the surface over which an organism lo ...

, which a cell can

metabolize Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cell ...

References

* Biochemistry methods Chemical biology {{biochem-stub