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Title: Bright split red fluorescent proteins for the visualization of endogenous proteins and synapses
Abstract

Self-associating split fluorescent proteins (FPs) are split FPs whose two fragments spontaneously associate to form a functional FP. They have been widely used for labeling proteins, scaffolding protein assembly and detecting cell-cell contacts. Recently developments have expanded the palette of self-associating split FPs beyond the original split GFP1-10/11. However, these new ones have suffered from suboptimal fluorescence signal after complementation. Here, by investigating the complementation process, we have demonstrated two approaches to improve split FPs: assistance through SpyTag/SpyCatcher interaction and directed evolution. The latter has yielded two split sfCherry3 variants with substantially enhanced overall brightness, facilitating the tagging of endogenous proteins by gene editing. Based on sfCherry3, we have further developed a new red-colored trans-synaptic marker called Neuroligin-1 sfCherry3 Linker Across Synaptic Partners (NLG-1 CLASP) for multiplexed visualization of neuronal synapses in livingC.elegans, demonstrating its broad applications.

 
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NSF-PAR ID:
10192573
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Nature Publishing Group
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Communications Biology
Volume:
2
Issue:
1
ISSN:
2399-3642
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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    This article was corrected on 19 July 2022. See the end of the full text for details.

    Basic Protocol 1: Lentivirus production and expression line creation

    Support Protocol 1: Six‐well assay for estimation of production cell line yield

    Support Protocol 2: Universal ELISA for quantifying proteins with fused leucine zippers and His‐tags

    Basic Protocol 2: Cultures for production of Class II MHC proteins

    Basic Protocol 3: Purification of Class II MHC proteins by anti‐leucine zipper affinity chromatography

    Alternate Protocol 1: IMAC purification of His‐tagged Class II MHC

    Support Protocol 3: Protein concentration measurements and adjustments

    Support Protocol 4: Polishing purification by anion‐exchange chromatography

    Support Protocol 5: Estimating biotinylation percentage by streptavidin precipitation

    Basic Protocol 4: Peptide exchange

    Basic Protocol 5: Analysis of peptide exchange by matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry

    Alternate Protocol 2: Native isoelectric focusing to validate MHC‐II peptide loading

    Basic Protocol 6: Multimerization

    Basic Protocol 7: Staining cells with Class II MHC tetramers

     
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