A new radioactive diazofluorene based heterobifunctional reagent

Synthesis of a radioactive photoactivable heterobifunctional reagent, N-oxysuccinimide ester of 2-¹⁴C]glycyl carboxy-9-diazofluorene is described. This reagent on photolysis gives rise to a reactive carbene which rapidly inserts into solvents like methanol. The probe can be easily linked to aldolase which on photolysis gives rise to aldolase dimer, trimer and tetramer depending on the density of linked probe. This probe has also been linked to concanavalin A. The radioactive concanavalin A so obtained was incubated with erythrocyte ghosts and photolysed. The membrane protein analysis by gel electrophoresis indicated that concanavalin A has been covalently crosslinked to band 3.