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Highly sensitive and quantitative FRET–FLIM imaging in single dendritic spines using improved non-radiative YFP

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Brain Cell Biology

Abstract

Two-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (TPFLIM) enables the quantitative measurements of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) in small subcellular compartments in light scattering tissue. We evaluated and optimized the FRET pair of mEGFP (monomeric EGFP with the A206K mutation) and REACh (non-radiative YFP variants) for TPFLIM. We characterized several mutants of REACh in terms of their “darkness,” and their ability to act as a FRET acceptor for mEGFP in HeLa cells and hippocampal neurons. Since the commonly used monomeric mutation A206K increases the brightness of REACh, we introduced a different monomeric mutation (F223R) which does not affect the brightness. Also, we found that the folding efficiency of original REACh, as measured by the fluorescence lifetime of a mEGFP–REACh tandem dimer, was low and variable from cell to cell. Introducing two folding mutations (F46L, Q69M) into REACh increased the folding efficiency by ∼50%, and reduced the variability of FRET signal. Pairing mEGFP with the new REACh (super-REACh, or sREACh) improved the signal-to-noise ratio compared to the mEGFP–mRFP or mEGFP–original REACh pair by ∼50%. Using this new pair, we demonstrated that the fraction of actin monomers in filamentous and globular forms in single dendritic spines can be quantitatively measured with high sensitivity. Thus, the mEGFP–sREACh pair is suited for quantitative FRET measurement by TPFLIM, and enables us to measure protein–protein interactions in individual dendritic spines in brain slices with high sensitivity.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Drs. Y. Hayashi, M. Matsuda, and A. Miyawaki for plasmids, K. Svoboda and H. Zhong for discussion, and C. Harvey, and M. Patterson for comments on the manuscript. We also thank A. Wan for preparing cultured slices and T. Zimmerman for laboratory management. This study was supported by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Alfred P. Sloan foundation, Dana foundation, National Aliance of Autism Research, National Institute of Health/National Institute of Mental Health, National Science Foundation, and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (HM).

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  1. Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, 27710, USA

    Hideji Murakoshi, Seok-Jin Lee & Ryohei Yasuda

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  1. Hideji Murakoshi
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  2. Seok-Jin Lee
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  3. Ryohei Yasuda
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Correspondence to Ryohei Yasuda.

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Murakoshi, H., Lee, SJ. & Yasuda, R. Highly sensitive and quantitative FRET–FLIM imaging in single dendritic spines using improved non-radiative YFP. Brain Cell Bio 36, 31–42 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11068-008-9024-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11068-008-9024-9

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