pH sensitivity of FRET reporters based on cyan and yellow fluorescent proteins.

It is generally acknowledged that the popular cyan and yellow fluorescent proteins carried by genetically encoded reporters suffer from strong pH sensitivities close to the physiological pH range. We studied the consequences of these pH responses on the intracellular signals of model Förster resonant energy transfer (FRET) tandems and FRET-based reporters of cAMP-dependent protein kinase activity (AKAR) expressed in the cytosol of living BHK cells, while changing the intracellular pH by means of the nigericin ionophore. Although the simultaneous pH sensitivities of the donor and the acceptor may mask each other in some cases, the magnitude of the perturbations can be very significant, as compared to the functional response of the AKAR biosensor. Replacing the CFP donor by the spectrally identical, but pH-insensitive Aquamarine variant (pK1/2 = 3.3) drastically modifies the biosensor pH response and gives access to the acid transition of the yellow acceptor. We developed a simple model of pH-dependent FRET and used it to describe the expected pH-induced changes in fluorescence lifetime and ratiometric signals. This model qualitatively accounts for most of the observations, but reveals a complex behavior of the cytosolic AKAR biosensor at acid pHs, associated to additional FRET contributions. This study underlines the major and complex impact of pH changes on the signal of FRET reporters in the living cell.

Newly engineered cyan fluorescent proteins with enhanced performances for live cell FRET imaging.

Cyan fluorescent proteins (CFPs) derived from Aequorea victoria green fluorescent protein are the most widely used Förster resonant energy transfer (FRET) donors in genetically encoded biosensors for live-cell imaging and bioassays. However, the weak and complex fluorescence emission of cyan variants, such as enhanced cyan fluorescent protein (ECFP) or Cerulean, has long remained a major bottleneck in these FRET techniques. Recently, several CFPs with greatly improved performances, including mTurquoise, mTurquoise2, mCerulean3, and Aquamarine, have been engineered through a mixture of site-directed and large-scale random mutagenesis. This review summarizes the engineering and relative merits of these new cyan donors, which can readily replace popular CFPs in FRET imaging protocols, while reaching fluorescence quantum yields close to 90%, and unprecedented long, near-single fluorescence lifetimes of about 4 ns. These variants display an increased general photostability and much reduced environmental sensitivity, notably towards acid pH. These new, bright, and robust CFPs now open up exciting outlooks for fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy and advanced quantitative FRET analyses in living cells. In addition, the stepwise engineering of Aquamarine shows that only two critical mutations in ECFP, and one in Cerulean, are required to achieve these performances, which brings new insights into the structural bases of their photophysical properties.