benzotriazole has been coupled with free amino acids, N-terminal-protected lysines and dipeptides to afford fluorescent amino acids and dipeptides (76-89% yield) with retention of original chirality. N a -and N e -Coumarinlabeled lysines are obtained by simple, two-step procedures. N a -Cbz-N e -(Coumarin-3-ylcarbonyl)-L-lysine is demonstrated to be an optically active fluorescent marker for labeling amino acids in solutionphase syntheses.The imaging of living cells is a big challenge in cell biology. Understanding the nature and dynamics of cellular events in living organisms is assisted by imaging cell components such as the nucleic acids, proteins and metabolites. Fluorescent markers are the visualization tools most commonly used, particularly fluorescent tagging with organic fluorophores 1 or green fluorescent protein (GFP). 2 Highly sensitive fluorescence derivatization techniques 3 are gaining an increasing share of the analytical world market, becoming competitive with, for example, radioimmunoassay. 4Radioactive labeling of peptides usually involves the introduction of a radiolabeled amino acid as part of the natural structure of the peptide. In contrast, fluorescent tags are introduced as an additional moiety to the molecule, by a variety of strategies. 5-10 Derivatives of rhodamine, fluorescein 11,12 and coumarin 13,14 are widely used as fluorescent markers for peptides and other biomolecules. Xanthenes such as rhodamines, fluoresceins and Alexa dyes are advantageously bright; however, drawbacks of existing derivatives in reporting protein conformational changes include (i) relatively long, flexible linkers between the probe and protein, which questions whether the probe motions faithfully mirror the motions of the residue to which it is attached, and (ii) multiple charges and relatively large surface areas, which can perturb local structure or motion, and inhibit labeling at certain positions. 7,13 Coumarins (benzopyran-2-ones), the largest class of laser dyes for the blue-green region, 14-22 are highly sensitive. They have provided the most commercially acceptable categories of fluorescent derivatives with the advantages of an extended spectral range, high emission quantum yield, photostability and good solubility in many solvents.The many bioanalytical applications of fluorescently labeled proteins include in vitro and in vivo imaging, 6,23 high-throughput screening, 24 proteomics, 24-26 diagnostics, 9,27,28 single biomolecule spectroscopy, 26,29 HPLC control 30 and exploring protein conformations. 7Probes for studying protein dynamics and electrostatics should be (i) sensitive to the state of hydrogen bonding in the solvent environment 31 and (ii) readily incorporated regiospecifically at the C-or the N-terminus of a protein.The use of an amino acid as a fluorescent chromophore offers a good possibility to synthesize fluorescent peptides by solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS).Previously, enantioselective syntheses of coumarincontaining amino acids have been carried out by the diastereoselective...