Issue 1, 2016

Design of a protein tag and fluorogenic probe with modular structure for live-cell imaging of intracellular proteins

Abstract

Conditional fluorescence imaging is a powerful technique for precise spatiotemporal analysis of proteins in live cells upon administration of a synthetic probe. To be applicable to various biological phenomena, probes must be membrane-permeable, have a high signal-to-noise ratio, and work quickly. To date, few probes meet all of these requirements. Here, we designed a fluorogenic probe (AcFCANB) that could label intracellular proteins fused to the photoactive yellow protein (PYP) tag in live cells within 30 min and used it to image heterochromatin protein 1 localization in nuclei. AcFCANB is based on a modular platform consisting of fluorophore, ligand and quencher. We accelerated the labeling reaction by strategic mutations of charged residues on the surface of PYP. A simple model based on molecular dynamics simulations quantitatively reproduced the cooperative effect of multiple mutations on labeling rate.

Graphical abstract: Design of a protein tag and fluorogenic probe with modular structure for live-cell imaging of intracellular proteins

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
30 Jun 2015
Accepted
28 Sep 2015
First published
30 Sep 2015
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2016,7, 308-314

Author version available

Design of a protein tag and fluorogenic probe with modular structure for live-cell imaging of intracellular proteins

Y. Kamikawa, Y. Hori, K. Yamashita, L. Jin, S. Hirayama, D. M. Standley and K. Kikuchi, Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 308 DOI: 10.1039/C5SC02351C

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements