An important challenge in the field of protein bioconjugation is the development of strategies that can modify a protein once at a single site. Although many bioconjugation reactions can functionalize specific amino acids in aqueous solution, [1] most proteins display multiple copies of the targeted residue on their surface. This commonly results in product mixtures that present the new functionality in multiple locations on the protein surface. As it is one of the rarest amino acids, [2] cysteine is the most commonly targeted residue when siteselective modification is required, but there remain many situations in which the modification of a unique copy of this residue is inconvenient or impossible. To address these limitations, several chemoselective techniques have been developed to target surface-accessible aromatic residues.[3]To complement these methods further, we report herein a biomimetic transamination reaction that can modify the N terminus of proteins and peptides under mild conditions. This technique introduces a uniquely reactive ketone or aldehyde group in a single location, thus allowing further modification through oxime or hydrazone formation. This simple strategy does not require the use of site-directed mutagenesis, and therefore has the potential to introduce virtually any functional group on a wide range of protein substrates.The unique reactive properties of the N terminus have resulted in several strategies targeting this location to achieve site-selective protein modification. To a limited extent, the lower pK a value of N-terminal amino groups (relative to lysine side chains) can be used to direct acylation reactions to[*] J.

A combinatorial depletion strategy is combined with biochemistry, quantitative proteomics and computational approaches to elucidate the structure of the SAGA/ADA complexes. The analysis reveals five connected functional modules capable of independent assembly.

c Cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9) and CDK12 have each been demonstrated to phosphorylate the RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain (CTD) at serine 2 of the heptad repeat, both in vitro and in vivo. CDK9, as part of P-TEFb and the super elongation complex (SEC), is by far the best characterized of CDK9, CDK12, and CDK13. We employed both in vitro and in vivo assays to further investigate the molecular properties of CDK12 and its paralog CDK13. We isolated Flag-tagged CDK12 and CDK13 and found that they associate with numerous RNA processing factors. Although knockdown of CDK12, CDK13, or their cyclin partner CCNK did not affect the bulk CTD phosphorylation levels in HCT116 cells, transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis revealed that CDK12 and CDK13 losses in HCT116 cells preferentially affect expression of DNA damage response and snoRNA genes, respectively. CDK12 and CDK13 depletion also leads to a loss of expression of RNA processing factors and to defects in RNA processing. These findings suggest that in addition to implementing CTD phosphorylation, CDK12 and CDK13 may affect RNA processing through direct physical interactions with RNA processing factors and by regulating their expression.T he largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (Pol II), Rpb1, contains a C-terminal domain (CTD) consisting of 52 heptad repeats of the YSPTSPS consensus sequence in humans (1). The CTD is phosphorylated within these repeats, including at serines 2, 5, and 7 (Ser2, Ser5, and Ser7, respectively) (2). The CTD serves as a phosphorylation-regulated platform for the recruitment of transcription factors, RNA processing factors, and chromatin modifiers, which affect mRNA synthesis, cotranscriptional processing, and histone modifications during the transcription cycle (3).The CTD undergoes a cycle of phosphorylation and dephosphorylation during the transcription cycle of initiation, elongation, and termination (4). During transcription initiation and early transcription, Ser5 of the CTD is phosphorylated by the cyclin-dependent kinase 7 (CDK7) subunit of the basal transcription factor TFIIH (2, 5). The positive transcription elongation factor, P-TEFb (comprised of CDK9 and cyclin T), regulates transcription elongation through phosphorylation of the CTD at Ser2 (6). P-TEFb also phosphorylates negative elongation factor (NELF) (7) and DRB sensitivity-inducing factor (DSIF) (8) during the transition to productive elongation.In the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, there are two complexes for CTD Ser2 phosphorylation: the Bur1/Bur2 complex and the Ctk1/Ctk2/Ctk3 (CTDK) complex. The Bur complex implements CTD phosphorylation early in the transcription cycle, while the Ctk complex implements CTD phosphorylation during the elongation phase of RNA Pol II (9). CDK9 was long considered to be the only CTD Ser2 kinase in metazoans, but recently the Drosophila dCdk12/dCyclin K complex was shown to be the major CTD Ser2 kinase implementing Ser2 phosphorylation during the elongation stage, analogous to the S. cerevisiae Ctk1/2 complex (10). In ...