The ability of non-invasive monitoring of deep-tissue developmental, metabolic, and pathogenic processes will advance modern biotechnology. Imaging of live mammals using fluorescent probes is more feasible within a “near-infrared optical window” (NIRW)1. Here we report a phytochrome-based near infra-red fluorescent protein (iRFP) with the excitation/emission maxima at 690/713 nm. Bright fluorescence in a living mouse proved iRFP to be a superior probe for non-invasive imaging of internal mammalian tissues. Its high intracellular stability, low cytotoxicity, and lack of the requirement to add external biliverdin-chromophore makes iRFP as easy to use as conventional GFP-like proteins. Compared to earlier phytochrome-derived fluorescent probes, the iRFP protein has better in vitro characteristics and performs well in cells and in vivo, having greater effective brightness and photostability. Compared to the far-red GFP-like proteins, iRFP has substantially higher signal to background ratio in a mouse model owing to its infra-red shifted spectra.

Covalent modifications of histone tails have a key role in regulating chromatin structure and controlling transcriptional activity. In eukaryotes, histone H3 trimethylated at lysine 4 (H3K4me3) is associated with active chromatin and gene expression. We recently found that plant homeodomain (PHD) finger of tumour suppressor ING2 (inhibitor of growth 2) binds H3K4me3 and represents a new family of modules that target this epigenetic mark. The molecular mechanism of H3K4me3 recognition, however, remains unknown. Here we report a 2.0 A resolution structure of the mouse ING2 PHD finger in complex with a histone H3 peptide trimethylated at lysine 4. The H3K4me3 tail is bound in an extended conformation in a deep and extensive binding site consisting of elements that are conserved among the ING family of proteins. The trimethylammonium group of Lys 4 is recognized by the aromatic side chains of Y215 and W238 residues, whereas the intermolecular hydrogen-bonding and complementary surface interactions, involving Ala 1, Arg 2, Thr 3 and Thr 6 of the peptide, account for the PHD finger's high specificity and affinity. Substitution of the binding site residues disrupts H3K4me3 interaction in vitro and impairs the ability of ING2 to induce apoptosis in vivo. Strong binding of other ING and YNG PHD fingers suggests that the recognition of H3K4me3 histone code is a general feature of the ING/YNG proteins. Elucidation of the mechanisms underlying this novel function of PHD fingers provides a basis for deciphering the role of the ING family of tumour suppressors in chromatin regulation and signalling.

Near-infrared fluorescent proteins are in high demand for in vivo imaging. We developed four spectrally distinct fluorescent proteins, iRFP670, iRFP682, iRFP702, and iRFP720, from bacterial phytochromes. iRFPs exhibit high brightness in mammalian cells and tissues and are suitable for long-term studies. iRFP670 and iRFP720 enable two-color imaging in living cells and mice using standard approaches. Five iRFPs including previously engineered iRFP713 allow multicolor imaging in living mice with spectral unmixing.

The reliance of modern microscopy techniques on photoactivatable fluorescent proteins prompted development of mCherry variants that are initially dark but become red fluorescent after violetlight irradiation. Using ensemble and single-molecule characteristics as selection criteria, we developed PAmCherry1 with excitation/emission maxima at 564/595 nm. Compared to other monomeric red photoactivatable proteins, it has faster maturation, better pH stability, faster photoactivation, higher photoactivation contrast and better photostability. Lack of green fluorescence and single-molecule behavior make monomeric PAmCherry1 a preferred tag for twocolor diffraction-limited photoactivation imaging and for super-resolution techniques such as oneand two-color photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM). We performed PALM imaging using PAmCherry1-tagged transferrin receptor expressed alone or with photoactivatable GFPtagged clathrin light chain. Pair correlation and cluster analyses of the resulting PALM images identified ≤200 nm clusters of transferrin receptor and clathrin light chain at ≤25 nm resolution and confirmed the utility of PAmCherry1 as an intracellular probe.Genetically encoded `photoactivatable' fluorescent proteins (PAFPs) make up a small category of fluorescent proteins 1 , but are beginning to find uses far and above those of normal' fluorescent proteins 2 . With initially little or no fluorescence within their associated spectral detection window, photoactivatable proteins can be switched on by irradiation with violet light. Thus they are useful for spatially pulse-labeling subpopulations of molecules in cells in complement to photobleaching applications and can provide other useful features such as a high contrast over background in the photoactivated region and circumvention of fluorescence contributions from newly synthesized, nonactivated PAFPs. PAFPs and photoswitchable dyes also provide probes necessary for high-resolution optical techniques, such as photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM) 3 , fluorescence photoactivated localization microscopy (FPALM) 4 , stochastic reconstruction microscopy (STORM) 5 , PALM with independent running acquisition (PALMIRA) 6 RESULTS Development of photoactivatable mCherry variantsWe analyzed data on color transitions of red fluorescent proteins to the respective nonfluorescent chromoproteins that had been generated by mutagenesis 1 and identified the corresponding crucial amino acid positions on the basis of the mCherry structure 18 . Positions spatially close to the chromophore, such as 148, 165, 167 and 203 (numbering is in accordance with GFP alignment; Supplementary Fig. 1 online), appear to be major molecular determinants of color 10,19 . We hypothesized that mutagenesis of mCherry at these positions might convert it to a photoactivatable red probe and performed saturating mutagenesis at these positions using the overlap extension approach.We screened the resulting bacterial library of the site-specific mCherry mutants by fluorescence-activated ...

Green fluorescent protein (GFP) and GFP-like proteins represent invaluable genetically encoded fluorescent probes. In the last few years a new class of photoactivatable fluorescent proteins (PAFPs) capable of pronounced light-induced spectral changes have been developed. Except for tetrameric KFP1 (ref. 4), all known PAFPs, including PA-GFP, Kaede, EosFP, PS-CFP, Dronpa, PA-mRFP1 and KikGR require light in the UV-violet spectral region for activation through one-photon excitation--such light can be phototoxic to some biological systems. Here, we report a monomeric PAFP, Dendra, derived from octocoral Dendronephthya sp. and capable of 1,000- to 4,500-fold photoconversion from green to red fluorescent states in response to either visible blue or UV-violet light. Dendra represents the first PAFP, which is simultaneously monomeric, efficiently matures at 37 degrees C, demonstrates high photostability of the activated state, and can be photoactivated by a common, marginally phototoxic, 488-nm laser line. We demonstrate the suitability of Dendra for protein labeling and tracking to quantitatively study dynamics of fibrillarin and vimentin in mammalian cells.

A vast colour palette of monomeric fluorescent proteins has been developed to investigate protein localization, motility and interactions. However, low brightness has remained a problem in far-red variants, which hampers multicolour labelling and whole-body imaging techniques. In the present paper, we report mKate2, a monomeric far-red fluorescent protein that is almost 3-fold brighter than the previously reported mKate and is 10-fold brighter than mPlum. The high-brightness, far-red emission spectrum, excellent pH resistance and photostability, coupled with low toxicity demonstrated in transgenic Xenopus laevis embryos, make mKate2 a superior fluorescent tag for imaging in living tissues. We also report tdKatushka2, a tandem far-red tag that performs well in fusions, provides 4-fold brighter near-IR fluorescence compared with mRaspberry or mCherry, and is 20-fold brighter than mPlum. Together, monomeric mKate2 and pseudo-monomeric tdKatushka2 represent the next generation of extra-bright far-red fluorescent probes offering novel possibilities for fluorescent imaging of proteins in living cells and animals.

Monomeric near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent proteins (FPs) are in high demand as protein tags and components of biosensors for deep-tissue imaging and multicolour microscopy. We report three bright and spectrally distinct monomeric NIR FPs, termed miRFPs, engineered from bacterial phytochrome, which can be used as easily as GFP-like FPs. miRFPs are 2–5-fold brighter in mammalian cells than other monomeric NIR FPs and perform well in protein fusions, allowing multicolour structured illumination microscopy. miRFPs enable development of several types of NIR biosensors, such as for protein–protein interactions, RNA detection, signalling cascades and cell fate. We demonstrate this by engineering the monomeric fluorescence complementation reporters, the IκBα reporter for NF-κB pathway and the cell cycle biosensor for detection of proliferation status of cells in culture and in animals. miRFPs allow non-invasive visualization and detection of biological processes at different scales, from super-resolution microscopy to in vivo imaging, using the same probes.

The fluorescence characteristics of photoactivatable proteins can be controlled by irradiating them with light of a specific wavelength, intensity and duration. This provides unique possibilities for the optical labelling and tracking of living cells, organelles and intracellular molecules in a spatio-temporal manner. Here, we discuss the properties of the available photoactivatable fluorescent proteins and their potential applications.