SUMMARY
The advances in bioorthogonal ligation methods have provided new opportunities for proteomic analysis of newly synthesized proteins, posttranslational modifications and specific enzyme families using azide/alkyne-functionalized chemical reporters and activity-based probes. Efficient enrichment and elution of azide/alkyne-labeled proteins with selectively cleavable affinity tags is essential for protein identification and quantification applications. Here we report the synthesis and comparative analysis of Na2S2O4-cleavable diazobenzene-based affinity tags for bioorthogonal chemical proteomics. We demonstrated that ortho-hydroxyl substituent is required for efficient diazobenzene-bond cleavage and show that these cleavable affinity tags can be used to identify newly synthesized proteins in bacteria targeted by amino acid chemical reporters as well as their sites of modification on endogenously expressed proteins. The diazobenzene-based affinity tags are compatible with in-gel, in-solution and on-bead enrichment strategies and should afford useful tools for diverse bioorthogonal proteomic applications.