Localization microscopy using noncovalent fluorogen activation by genetically encoded fluorogen activating proteins

摘要

The noncovalent equilibrium activation of a fluorogenic malachite green dye and its cognate fluorogen activating protein has been exploited to produce a sparse labeling distribution of densely tagged genetically encoded proteins, enabling single molecule detection and superresolution imaging in fixed and living cells. These sparse labeling conditions are achieved by control of the dye concentration in the milieu, and do not require any photoswitching or photoactivation. The labeling is achieved using physiological buffers and cellular media, and does not require additives or switching buffer to obtain superresolution images. We evaluate superresolution properties and images obtained from a selected fluorogen activating protein clone fused to actin, and show that the photon counts per object fall between those typically reported for fluorescent proteins and switching dye-pairs, resulting in 10-30 nm localization precision per object. This labeling strategy complements existing approaches, and may simplify multicolor labeling of cellular structures.