Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 21, 2026
Cell-Type Specific Protein Purification and Identification from Complex Tissues Using a Mutant Methionine tRNA Synthetase Mouse Line
Published on: April 13, 2022
Cell-selective metabolic labeling of proteins
John T Ngo1, Julie A Champion, Alborz Mahdavi
1Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA.
Abstract:
Metabolic labeling of proteins with the methionine surrogate azidonorleucine can be targeted exclusively to specified cells through expression of a mutant methionyl-tRNA synthetase (MetRS). In complex cellular mixtures, proteins made in cells that express the mutant synthetase can be tagged with affinity reagents (for detection or enrichment) or fluorescent dyes (for imaging). Proteins made in cells that do not express the mutant synthetase are neither labeled nor detected.
