Mapping subcellular microenvironments using oligonucleotide-directed proximity labeling

Understanding how cells compartmentalize their biomolecules into discrete structures remains one of the fundamental goals of cell biology. The proliferation of proximity labeling (PL) technologies has been invaluable toward this goal, enabling biochemical "dissection" of compartments that would be intractable to classical biochemical methods. While robust PL approaches have long been established for targeting proteins of interest, targeting nucleic acids-RNAs and genomic loci-has remained significantly more challenging. Here, we review recent advancements in the field that overcome this longstanding roadblock by using programmable DNA oligonucleotides to direct PL enzyme localization. These tools are already revealing new insights into the molecular architecture of cellular compartments that lie at the heart of gene expression. They also provide a foundation for developing a new generation of PL tools that exploit the modularity and programmability of oligonucleotide-based devices to enable precise spatiotemporal control at previously inaccessible targets and in challenging specimen types.