Bis-hydrazide modification

Most proteins contain an abundance of carboxylic acid groups from C-terminal functionalities and aspartic and glutamic acid side chains. These groups are readily modified with bis-hydrazide compounds to yield useful hydrazide-activated derivatives. Both carbohydrazide and adipic acid dihydrazide have been employed in forming these modifications using the carbodi-imide reaction (Wilchek and Bayer, 1987). 

The following protocol describes the modification of DNA or RNA probes at their 5 -phosphate ends with a bis-hydrazide compound, such as adipic acid dihydrazide or carbohydrazide. A similar procedure for coupling the diamine compound cystamine can be found in Section 2.2 (this chapter). 

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