Photoinduced Electron Transfer-Regulated Protein Labeling With a Coumarin-Based Multifunctional Photocrosslinker

We developed a novel diazirine-based photolabeling agent having a (coumarin-4-yl)methyl ester scaffold, which exhibited multiple photochemical properties of crosslinking, fluorogenicity and cleavage. These properties can be kinetically regulated via photoinduced electron transfer between diazirine and coumarin moieties. The C-O bond of (coumarin-4-yl)methyl ester can be cleaved via photochemical excitation of coumarin moiety, that function has been initially quenched by the diazirine moiety. Upon diazirine photolysis with 365-nm light, interacting protein was stably captured with photoactivatable ligand probe. Then, the unlocked cleavage function was activated with 313 nm light, and the reaction was accelerated in a weakly-basic solution. The crosslinked protein could be selectively isolated with attachment of a small coumarin tag on the surface. This multi-functional labeling agent has a great potential to facilitate LC-MS/MS-based protein identification.