title: Flavin-based fluorescent proteins: emerging paradigms in biological imaging.
abstract: Flavin-based fluorescent proteins (FbFPs) are an emerging class of fluorescent reporters characterized by oxygen-independent fluorescence and a small size - key advantages compared to the green fluorescent protein (GFP). FbFPs are at a nascent stage of development. However, they have already been used as versatile reporters for studying anaerobic biosystems and viral assemblies. Recently, FbFPs with improved brightness and photostability have been engineered. In addition, several FbFPs show high degrees of thermal and pH stability. For these reasons, FbFPs hold strong promise to extend bioimaging to clinically and industrially significant systems that have been challenging to study using GFPs. In this review, we highlight recent developments in the FbFP toolbox and explore further improvements necessary to maximize the potential of FbFPs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.
authors.forename: Arnab
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA; Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA; Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. Electronic address: cms@illinois.edu.
authors.forename: Charles M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Schroeder
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004138:Dinitrocresols; D005415:Flavins / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D010100:Oxygen / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D004138:Dinitrocresols; D005415:Flavins; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; C024132:4,6-dinitro-o-cresol; D010100:Oxygen