Bio-orthogonal Fluorescent Labelling of Biopolymers through Inverse-Electron-Demand Diels-Alder Reactions

Bio-orthogonal labelling schemes based on inverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder (IEDDA) cycloaddition have attracted much attention in chemical biology recently. The appealing features of this reaction, such as the fast reaction kinetics, fully bio-orthogonal nature and high selectivity, have helped chemical biologists gain deeper understanding of biochemical processes at the molecular level. Listing the components and discussing the possibilities and limitations of these reagents, we provide a recent snapshot of the field of IEDDA-based biomolecular manipulation with special focus on fluorescent modulation approaches through the use of bio-orthogonalized building blocks. At the end, we discuss challenges that need to be addressed for further developments in order to overcome recent limitations and to enable researchers to answer biomolecular questions in more detail.