A Bright, Nontoxic, and Non-aggregating red Fluorescent Protein for Long-Term Labeling of Fine Structures in Neurons

作者：Ning Lin, Yang Geng, Matthew Lovett-Barron, Xiaoman Niu, Mengying Deng, Liang Wang, Niloufar Ataie, Alex Sens, Ho Leung Ng, Shoudeng Chen, Karl Deisseroth, Michael Z. Lin, Jun Chu · 发表于：Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.3389/fcell.2022.893468 · 被引用次数：22 · 研究领域：Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques、Cell Image Analysis Techniques、Photoreceptor and optogenetics research

Red fluorescent proteins are useful as morphological markers in neurons, often complementing green fluorescent protein-based probes of neuronal activity. However, commonly used red fluorescent proteins show aggregation and toxicity in neurons or are dim. We report the engineering of a bright red fluorescent protein, Crimson, that enables long-term morphological labeling of neurons without aggregation or toxicity. Crimson is similar to mCherry and mKate2 in fluorescence spectra but is 100 and 28% greater in molecular brightness, respectively. We used a membrane-localized Crimson-CAAX to label thin neurites, dendritic spines and filopodia, enhancing detection of these small structures compared to cytosolic markers.