ABSTRACT
Live-cell labelling techniques to visualize proteins with minimal disturbance are important; however, the currently available methods are limited in their labelling efficiency, specificity and cell permeability. We describe high-throughput protein labelling facilitated by minimalistic probes delivered to mammalian cells by microfluidic cell squeezing. High-affinity and target-specific tracing of proteins in various subcellular compartments is demonstrated, culminating in photoinduced labelling within live cells. Both the fine-tuned delivery of subnanomolar concentrations and the minimal size of the probe allow for live-cell super-resolution imaging with very low background and nanometre precision. This method is fast in probe delivery (â¼ 1,000,000 cells per second), versatile across cell types and can be readily transferred to a multitude of proteins. Moreover, the technique succeeds in combination with well-established methods to gain multiplexed labelling and has demonstrated potential to precisely trace target proteins, in live mammalian cells, by super-resolution microscopy.
Subject(s)
Cells/chemistry , Proteins/chemistry , Staining and Labeling/methods , Biomechanical Phenomena , Cell Line , Cells/metabolism , Fluorescent Dyes/chemistry , HumansABSTRACT
Techniques based on fluorescence microscopy are increasingly used to count proteins in cells, but few stoichiometrically well-defined standards are available to test their accuracy. A selection of bacterial homo-oligomers were developed that contain 10-24 subunits and fully assemble when expressed in mammalian cells, and they can be used to easily validate/calibrate molecular counting methods. The utility of these standards was demonstrated by showing that nuclear pores contain 32â copies of the Nup107 complex.
Subject(s)
Bacterial Proteins/analysis , Escherichia coli/chemistry , Microscopy, Fluorescence/methods , Nuclear Pore Complex Proteins/analysis , Nuclear Pore/chemistry , Synechococcus/chemistry , Cell Line , HumansABSTRACT
Protein labeling with synthetic fluorescent probes is a key technology in chemical biology and biomedical research. A sensitive and efficient modular labeling approach (SLAP) was developed on the basis of a synthetic small-molecule recognition unit (Ni-trisNTA) and the genetically encoded minimal protein His6-10 -tag. High-density protein tracing by SLAP was demonstrated. This technique allows super-resolution fluorescence imaging and fulfills the necessary sampling criteria for single-molecule localization-based imaging techniques. It avoids masking by large probes, for example, antibodies, and supplies sensitive, precise, and robust size analysis of protein clusters (nanodomains).
Subject(s)
Actins/chemistry , Fluorescent Dyes/chemistry , Lamin Type A/chemistry , Microscopy, Fluorescence/methods , Molecular Imaging/methods , Animals , CHO Cells , Cricetulus , Fluorescence , HeLa Cells , Humans , NanotechnologyABSTRACT
We demonstrate high-density labelling of cellular DNA and RNA using click chemistry and perform confocal and super-resolution microscopy. We visualize the crescent and ring-like structure of densely packed RNA in nucleoli. We further demonstrate click chemistry with unnatural amino acids for super-resolution imaging of outer-membrane proteins of E. coli.