Site-specific attachment of polyethylene glycol-like oligomers to proteins and peptides.

Modification of proteins with polymers is a viable method to tune protein properties, e.g., to render them more water-soluble by using hydrophilic polymers.

Rapid production of functionalized recombinant proteins: marrying ligation independent cloning and in vitro protein ligation.

Functional genomics and proteomics have been very active fields since the sequencing of several genomes was completed. To assign a physiological role to the newly discovered coding genes with unknown function, new generic methods for protein production, purification, and targeted functionalization are needed. This work presents a new vector, pCYSLIC, that allows rapid generation of Escherichia coli expression constructs via ligation-independent cloning (LIC).