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Updated: Jul 10, 2026
Sequence-specific Labeling of Nucleic Acids and Proteins with Methyltransferases and Cofactor Analogues
Published on: November 22, 2014
Sequence-specific Methyltransferase-Induced Labelling (SMILing) of plasmid DNA for studying cell transfection
Falk H-G Schmidt1, Michael Hüben, Basar Gider
1Laboratoire de Chimie des Interactions Moléculaires, Collège de France, Paris, France.
Abstract:
Plasmid DNA (pUC19 and pBR322) was sequence-specifically, covalently labelled with Cy3 fluorophores using a newly synthesised N-adenosylaziridine cofactor and the DNA methyltransferase M.TaqI. The fluorescently labelled plasmids were used for transfection of mammalian cells and their intracellular distribution was visualised by epifluorescence and confocal fluorescence microscopy. Although these prokaryotic plasmids do not contain nuclear import sequences, translocation into the nuclei was observed.
