Short-length dimethoxynitrophenyl photo-cleavable crosslinkers, synthesis and photolysis

In order to have short photo-cleavable crosslinkers more suitable for the intramolecular crosslinking; we have synthesized homo-bifunctional photo-cleavable sulfhydryl groups crosslinkers that represent distances of 2.6–5.4 Å between the two reactive sites. These chemical probes were able to react with two equivalents of cysteines, and to photo-release them very efficiently by near-UV irradiation.