The engineered ascorbate peroxidase (APEX) is a powerful tool for the proximity-dependent labeling of proteins and RNAs in live cells. Although widely use in mammalian cells, APEX applications in microorganisms have been hampered by the poor labeling efficiency of its biotin-phenol (BP) substrate. In this study, we sought to address this challenge by designing and screening a panel of alkyne-functionalized substrates. Our best probe, Alk-Ph, substantially improves APEX-labeling efficiency in intact yeast cells, as it is more cell wall-permeant than BP. Through a combination of protein-centric and peptide-centric chemoproteomic experiments, we have identified 165 proteins with a specificity of 94% in the yeast mitochondrial matrix. In addition, we have demonstrated that Alk-Ph is useful for proximity-dependent RNA labeling in yeast, thus expanding the scope of APEX-seq. We envision that this improved APEX-labeling strategy would set the stage for the large-scale mapping of spatial proteome and transcriptome in yeast.

• PMID: 32470320
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Journal Article | Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Authors

Li Y, Tian C, Liu K, Zhou Y, Yang J, Zou P

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