Design and synthesis of caged fluorescent nucleotides and application to live-cell RNA imaging.
A binary photocontrolled nucleic acid probe that contains a nucleotide modified with one photolabile nitrobenzyl unit and two hybridization-sensitive thiazole orange units has been designed for area-specific fluorescence imaging of RNA in a cell. The synthesized probe emitted very weak fluorescence regardless of the presence of the complementary RNA, whereas it showed hybridization-sensitive fluorescence emission at 532 nm after photoirradiation at 360 or 405 nm for uncaging. Fluorescence suppression of the caged probe was attributed to a decrease in the duplex-formation ability. Caged fluorescent nucleotides with other emission wavelengths (622 and 724 nm) were also synthesized in this study; they were uncaged by 360 nm irradiation, and emitted fluorescence in the presence of the complementary RNA. Such probes were applied to area-specific RNA imaging in a cell. Only probes in the defined irradiation area were activated by uncaging irradiation, and subnuclear mRNA diffusion in a living cell was monitored.
Advanced Science Institute, RIKEN, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
Shuji
S
Ikeda
Takeshi
T
Kubota
Dan Ohtan
DO
Wang
Hiroyuki
H
Yanagisawa
Tadashi
T
Umemoto
Akimitsu
A
Okamoto
D015195:Drug Design; D005453:Fluorescence; D009711:Nucleotides / Q000737:chemistry*; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry*
D009711:Nucleotides; D012313:RNA