HaloTag Protein-Mediated Site-Specific Conjugation of Bioluminescent Proteins to Quantum Dots

摘要

Quantum dots are fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals that have attracted much attention as fluorescence imaging probes owing to their unique optical properties such as high quantum yield, high molar extinction coefficients, narrow emission spectra, size-dependent tunable emission, and high photostability.[1–8] To apply quantum dots to biological detection and imaging applications, quantum dots have to be conjugated to molecules (e.g. peptide ligands, carbohydrate, antibodies, small molecule ligands) that can specifically recognize the biological target under study. Numerous examples have been reported on the use of quantum dots for both in vitro assays and in vivo imaging, but thesequantum dot conjugates are either assembled through nonspecific interactions or prepared through site-nonspecific coupling reactions.