Peptides chemical genetics

The properties of the PPl interaction code suggests that it is possible to develop peptides or small molecules that bind to the surface of PPl and selectively disrupt (subsets of) PPl holoenzymes. Such tools can be used for functional studies (chemical genetics)... 

To conduct a chemical genetic phenotypic screen there is an absolute requirement for a large selection of bioactive molecules. The primary limits on these molecules availability are the synthetic routes to them. For this reason there are three main classes of such compounds natural products, synthetic peptides and pharmaceutical-like molecules. 

The ability to synthesize chemically short sequences of single-stranded DNA (oligonucleotides) is an essential part of many aspects of genetic engineering. The method most frequently employed is that of solid-phase synthesis, where the basic philosophy is the same as that in solid-phase peptide synthesis (see Section 13.6.3). In other words, the growing nucleic acid is attached to a suitable solid support, protected nucleotides are supplied in the appropriate sequence, and each addition is followed by repeated coupling and deprotection cycles. 

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