Abstract
Fluorogenic probes that are activated by an enzymatic transformation are ideally suited for profiling enzyme activities in biological systems. Here, we describe two fluorogenic enzyme probes, 3-O-methylfluorescein-sulfate and resorufin-sulfate, that can be used to detect sulfatases in mycobacterial lysates. Both probes were validated with a set of commercial sulfatases and used to reveal species-specific sulfatase banding patterns in a gel-resolved assay of mycobacterial lysates. The fluorogenic probes described here are suitable for various assays and provide a starting point for creating new sulfatase probes with improved selectivity for mycobacterial sulfatases.