Formylglycine-generating enzymes for site-specific bioconjugation

Site-specific bioconjugation strategies offer many possibilities for directed protein modifications. Among the various enzyme-based conjugation protocols, formylglycine-generating enzymes allow to posttranslationally introduce the amino acid Cα-formylglycine (FGly) into recombinant proteins, starting from cysteine or serine residues within distinct consensus motifs. The aldehyde-bearing FGly-residue displays orthogonal reactivity to all other natural amino acids and can, therefore, be used for site-specific labeling reactions on protein scaffolds. In this review, the state of research on catalytic mechanisms and consensus motifs of different formylglycine-generating enzymes, as well as labeling strategies and applications of FGly-based bioconjugations are presented.