Efficient Trace-labelling of Proteins with Iodine

Abstract

IN the methods of iodination currently used only the cationic portion of the iodine molecule becomes bound to the ring structure of tyrosine, so that the theoretical efficiency of labelling is 50 per cent. In practice, efficiencies are always lower than this and may be only a few per cent when the ratio of iodine to protein used is less than one atom per molecule. Values greater than 50 per cent can be obtained by adding oxidizing agents to liberate iodine from iodide, but most if not all of these appear to affect adversely the properties of the labelled protein.