Single-stranded DNA as a cleavable linker for bioorthogonal click chemistry-based proteomics

In this communication, we report a new class of cleavable linker based on automatically synthesized, single-stranded DNAs. We incorporated a DNA oligo into an azide-functionalized biotin (biotin-DNA-N3) and used the probe to enrich for alkyne-tagged glycoproteins from mammalian cell lysates. Highly efficient and selective release of the captured proteins from streptavidin agarose resins was achieved using DNase treatment under very mild conditions. A total of 36 sialylated glycoproteins were identified from the lysates of HL60 cells, an acute human promyeloid leukemia cell line. These sialylated glycoproteins were involved in many different biological processes ranging from glycan biosynthesis to cell adhesion events.