Site‐Specific Protein Modification with Reducing Carbohydrates

Abstract

Protein glycosylation plays critical roles in many biological processes. However, the fundamental study and application of glycobiology are hindered by the heterogeneousness of oligosaccharides in natural glycoproteins and the difficulty in constructing glycoproteins of human design. Herein, we describe a semisynthetic method to site‐specifically modify proteins with reducing carbohydrates. The method involves the genetic incorporation of a side‐chain‐esterified aspartate, which was subsequently quantitatively converted into alanine‐β‐hydrazide (Aβz), and chemoselective conjugation of Aβz with a range of readily available reducing carbohydrates. The resulting Aβz‐linked GlcNAc is a close mimic of native N‐GlcNAc and could be installed on various proteins, including IL‐17A and RNase A. Notably, Aβz‐linked GlcNAc on proteins reacted with biantennary oligosaccharide oxazoline derivatives through endoglycosidase‐catalyzed transglycosylation reactions to enable the assembly of homogeneous glycans on proteins.