Caged Phosphoproteins

摘要

The phosphorylation of serine,threonine,and tyrosine residues in proteins is a central mechanism of cellular regulation.Phosphorylation can profoundly modulate the role of the protein in a biological system,either by altering the activity of the isolated protein or by influencing interactions with other proteins.The phosphorylation state of a protein is dynamic;it is determined by the interplay of kinases,which append the phosphoryl group,and phosphatases(PPases),which remove it.Currently available biological experiments,such as chemical inhibition,gene knockout,or point mutation studies,do not allow real-time studies of the effects of protein phosphorylation in complex biochemical signaling pathways.