Fluorescent RAFT polymers bearing a nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) ligand at the α-chain-end for the site-specific labeling of histidine-tagged proteins

Site-specific labeling of proteins is a valuable tool to study biological processes. We show that it can be achieved using fluorescent polymer probes synthesized by RAFT polymerization. Thanks to an original control agent functionalized with a nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) ligand, an α-NTA polymer probe was prepared to selectively label histidine-tagged recombinant proteins.