An Excimer-Based, Turn-On Fluorescent Sensor for the Selective Detection of Diphosphorylated Proteins in Aqueous Solution and Polyacrylamide Gels

Protein phosphorylation is a ubiquitous post-translational modification, which often acts as a switch to proteins' activation and is frequently perturbed in diseases. Although many general phospho-protein detection tools are available, none of them offers information about the relative spatial arrangement of phosphorylated residues. Specifically, proximally phosphorylated residues are hallmarks of certain activated disease-relevant proteins. We herein report the first turn-on fluorescent sensor for the selective detection of proximally phosphorylated protein sites, suitable for application in both aqueous solutions and polyacrylamide gels.