Facile synthesis of covalent probes to capture enzymatic intermediates during E1 enzyme catalysis.

ABSTRACT

We report a facile synthetic strategy to prepare UBL-AMP electrophilic probes that form a covalent bond with the catalytic cysteine of cognate E1s, mimicking the tetrahedral intermediate of the E1-UBL-AMP complex. These probes enable the structural and biochemical study of both canonical- and non-canonical E1s.