Design of a synthetic luminescent probe from a biomolecule binding domain: selective detection of AU-rich mRNA sequences

Laurent Raibaut (1) , William Vasseur (1) , Geoffrey D Shimberg (2) , Christine Saint-Pierre (3) , Jean-Luc Ravanat (3) , Sarah L. J. Michel (2) , Olivier Sénèque (1)

1 LCBM - UMR 5249 - Laboratoire de Chimie et Biologie des Métaux
2 Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
3 CIBEST - Chimie Interface Biologie pour l’Environnement, la Santé et la Toxicologie

We report the design of a luminescent sensor based upon the zinc finger (ZF) protein TIS11d, that allows for the selective time-resolved detection of the UUAUUUAUU sequence of the 3 0-untranslated region of messenger RNA. This sensor is composed of the tandem ZF RNA binding domain of TIS11d functionalized with a luminescent Tb 3+ complex on one of the ZFs and a sensitizing antenna on the other. This work provides the proof of principle that an RNA binding protein can be re-engineered as an RNA sensor and, more generally, that tunable synthetic luminescent probes for biomolecules can be obtained by modifying biomolecule-binding domains.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Laurent Raibaut, William Vasseur, Geoffrey D Shimberg, Christine Saint-Pierre, Jean-Luc Ravanat, et al.. Design of a synthetic luminescent probe from a biomolecule binding domain: selective detection of AU-rich mRNA sequences. Chemical Science, 2017, 8 (2), pp.1658 - 1664. ⟨10.1039/c6sc04086a⟩. ⟨hal-01692935⟩