title: A green to red photoconvertible protein as an analyzing tool for early vertebrate development.
abstract: Lineage labeling is one of the most important techniques in developmental biology. Most recently, a set of photoactivatable fluorescent proteins originating from marine cnidarians became available. Here, we introduce the application of the green to red photoconvertible protein EosFP as a novel technique to analyze early vertebrate development. Both injection of EosFP mRNA and purified, recombinant EosFP followed by a light-driven green to red conversion allow lineage labeling in virtually any temporal and spatial dimension during embryonic development for at least 2 weeks. Specific staining of cells from nonsurface layers is greatly facilitated by light-driven conversion of EosFP compared with traditional methods. Therefore, green to red photoactivatable proteins promise to be a powerful tool with the potential to satisfy the increasing demand for methods enabling detailed phenotypical analyses after manipulations of morphogenetic events, gene expression, or signal transduction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany. stephan.wacker@uni-ulm.de
authors.forename: Stephan A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Wacker
authors.forename: Franz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Oswald
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wiedenmann
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Knöchel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000502:physiology*; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000502:physiology*; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism*; D013194:Staining and Labeling / Q000379:methods*; D014982:Xenopus laevis
chemical_list: D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger