Lifetime-based photoconversion of EGFP as a tool for FLIM

Abstract

Background: EGFP is a fluorescent tag extensively used in biological and biomedical research. Over the years many researches have gathered collections of cell lines bearing specific EGFP-tagged proteins. Despite its popularity some photochemical properties of EGFP remain undocumented and unused. We report on so far unexplored lifetime photoconversion of EGFP usable in FLIM.

Methods: Fluorescence lifetime imaging and spectral FLIM has been used for characterization of the EGFP photoconversion and protein tracking.

Result: Our data suggest that EGFP can be permanently photoconverted to a short-fluorescence-lifetime form (PC-EGFP) by intense blue irradiation. PC-EGFP cannot be reverted back by 405 nm light and exhibits the same spectral emission properties with blue-shifted absorption compared to the unconverted EGFP. Fluorescence of PC-EGFP is pH-independent and the photoconversion efficiency decreases with the solvent viscosity. Utilization of the EGFP photoconversion was demonstrated by tracking of a nucleophosmin mutant in live HEK-293 T cells during its cytoplasm-nuclear relocalization induced by Leptomycin B.

Conclusions: Besides potential FLIM artifacts caused by an unintended EGFP photoconversion, the controlled photoconversion turns EGFP to an excellent tool for kinetic FLIM applications. Since the photoconversion occurs in the lifetime domain, PC-EGFP can be easily distinguished from the unconverted tag by time-resolved detection while all other spectral channels stay free for multicolor labeling.

General significance: The reported lifetime photoconversion lines up EGFP with other photoconvertible fluorescent proteins with special advantage for fluorescence lifetime imaging where lifetime-photoconvertible labels are scarce.

Keywords: Fluorescence lifetime imaging; Leptomycin B; Nucleophosmin; Photobleaching; Phototransformation; Protein tracking.