Protein methylation is an important and reversible protein post-translational modification (PTM) process that plays an important role in regulating cellular and biological processes, including transcriptional regulation, RNA processing, metabolism, and signal transduction. Creative BioMart's extensive experience in post-translational modification of proteins based on computational and experimental methods enables us to provide protein methylation service to accelerate your project.

Protein methylation refers to the addition of methyl groups to the backbone or side chains of several amino acids, such as lysine, arginine, histidine, alanine and asparagine, cysteine, etc. In this field, the main research focuses on the modification of lysine and arginine residues. Arginines can be methylated once or twice, while lysines can be methylated once, twice or three times. Methylation is generally accomplished by the enzyme methyltransferase. PMT-mediated methylation can alter the physical properties, stability, and localization of target proteins and create docking sites for binding partners. Furthermore, abnormal levels of PMT and its gain/ loss-of-function mutations disrupt these interacting networks and are often associated with cancer and other diseases. Therefore, methylation is a well-known epigenetic regulatory mechanism. Currently, there is not much information on methylation of recombinant protein therapeutics, including monoclonal antibodies.

Fig 1. A speculative model of potential contributions of protein methylation to cellular signal transduction. (Aletta J M, et al., 1998)

Services

The regulatory mechanism of protein methylation is still unclear. Traditional protein methylation experimental methods are laborious and expensive, such as mutagenesis of potentially methylated residues, methylation-specific antibodies, and mass spectrometry. Therefore, computational prediction of methylation sites is widely welcomed due to its convenience and speed. Creative BioMart has successfully employed multiple techniques to reliably study protein methylation to fully understand the methylation status of proteins. Extensive experience studying up to 107 proteins with experimentally determined post-translational lysine methylation sites and 41 proteins with post-translational arginine methylation sites gives us enough confidence to provide global customers with the best protein methylation modification service.

The protein methylation service process basically includes gel or solution digestion of proteins, enrichment of methylated proteins by targeting antibodies, LC-MS/MS analysis, and data analysis. Furthermore, based on the different characteristics between methylated and unmethylated residues, we worked on developing methylation site predictors. With powerful and sensitive tools, we provide the following services for protein methylation, including but not limited to:

• Identifing, quantifing, and characterizing protein methylation.
• Measuring dynamics and differences in protein methylation rates in vivo.
• Predicting protein methylation sites.

Approaches for Analyzing Protein Methylation

• Specific antibody immunoprecipitation.
• Radiolabeling.
• Mass spectrometry.
• High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).
• Capillary electrophoresis (CE).
• Methylation-specific PCR.
• Bisulfite sequencing.
• High resolution melting curve method.
• Computational method.

Our mission is to provide global customers with the most comprehensive and professional customized protein methylation service. If you have any special requirements about our services, please feel free to contact us. We are looking forward to working together with your attractive projects.

References

1. Aletta J M, Cimato T R, Ettinger M J. (1998) Protein methylation: a signal event in post-translational modification[J]. Trends in biochemical sciences. 23(3): 89-91.
2. Chen H, Xue Y, Huang N, et al.. (2006) MeMo: a web tool for prediction of protein methylation modifications[J]. Nucleic acids research. 34(suppl_2): W249-W253.

• Protein Acetylation Service
• Protein Carbonylation Service
• Protein Glycosylation Service
• Protein Hydroxylation Service
• Protein Nitrosylation Service
• Protein Phosphorylation Service
• Protein Proteolytic Service
• Protein Sulfation Service
• Protein Ubiquitination Service