Benzophenones (BP) and related aryl ketone photophores have become est
ablished as the photoactivatable group of choice for high-efficiency c
ovalent modification of hydrophobic regions of binding proteins, inclu
ding enzymes and receptors that recognize peptide hormones, (oligo)nuc
leotides and nucleosides, phosphoinositides, inositol polyphosphates a
nd a wide variety of therapeutic molecules. This review presents the a
dvantages of BP as photoaffinity labels and provides specific examples
from the last 3 years of applications of BP-containing ligands used i
n biochemistry.