Photoactivatable and Water Soluble FRET Dyes with High Uncaging Cross Section

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society Vol. 129; no. 35; pp. 10616 - 10617
• Main Authors: Zheng, Genhua, Guo, Yan-Ming, Li, Wen-Hong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: WASHINGTON American Chemical Society 05.09.2007; Amer Chemical Soc
• Subjects: Animals; Cell Line; Chemistry; Chemistry, Multidisciplinary; Coumarins - chemical synthesis; Coumarins - chemistry; Dogs; Fluoresceins - chemical synthesis; Fluoresceins - chemistry; Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer - methods; Fluorescent Dyes - chemical synthesis; Fluorescent Dyes - chemistry; Photochemistry; Physical Sciences; Science & Technology; Solutions; Spectrometry, Fluorescence; Water - chemistry; FLUOROPHORES; LAMP; RNA; GAP JUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATION
• ISSN: 0002-7863; 1520-5126
• DOI: 10.1021/ja071427+

Photoactivatable fluorophores are powerful imaging probes for tracking molecular and cellular dynamics with high spatiotemporal resolution. We have designed and synthesized a new caged FRET dye, CCC-1, comprising a caged coumarin and a water soluble xanthene dye. CCC-1 can be efficiently photolyzed by ultraviolet light. Its photolyzed product, CC-1, emits strong green fluorescence with a FRET efficiency of 95% when excited near 410 nm. The uncaging cross section of CCC-1 is about 6000 M-1cm-1 at 365 nm, more than a hundred times higher than caged fluoresceins developed previously. The probe is also biocompatible and has built-in functionalities for bioconjugation.