Chemical modification

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In biochemistry, chemical modification is the technique of chemically reacting a protein or nucleic acid with chemical reagents. Chemical modification can have several goals, such as

• to identify which parts of the molecule are exposed to solvent ("foot printing");

• to determine which residues are important for a particular phenotype, e.g., which residues are important for an enzymatic activity;

• to introduce new groups into a macromolecule; and

• to crosslink macromolecules intra- and intermolecularly.

[edit] Chemical modification of protein side chains

[edit] Chemical modification of nucleic acids

Protein structure determination methods
High resolution:	X-ray crystallography | NMR | Electron crystallography
Medium resolution:	Cryo-electron microscopy | Fiber diffraction | Mass spectrometry
Spectroscopic:	NMR | Circular dichroism | Absorbance | Fluorescence | Fluorescence anisotropy
Translational Diffusion:	Analytical ultracentrifugation | Size exclusion chromatography | Light scattering | NMR
Rotational Diffusion:	Fluorescence anisotropy | Flow birefringence | Dielectric relaxation | NMR
Chemical:	Hydrogen-deuterium exchange | Site-directed mutagenesis | Chemical modification
Thermodynamic:	Equilibrium unfolding
Computational:	Protein structure prediction | Molecular docking
←Tertiary structure		Quaternary structure→