scholarly journals The in vivo mechanics of the magnetotactic backbone as revealed by correlative FLIM-FRET and STED microscopy

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Günther ◽  
André Klauß ◽  
Mauricio Toro-Nahuelpan ◽  
Dirk Schüler ◽  
Carsten Hille ◽  
...  

AbstractProtein interaction and protein imaging strongly benefit from the advancements in time-resolved and superresolution fluorescence microscopic techniques. However, the techniques were typically applied separately and ex vivo because of technical challenges and the absence of suitable fluorescent protein pairs. Here, we show correlative in vivo fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy Förster resonance energy transfer (FLIM-FRET) and stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy to unravel protein mechanics and structure in living cells. We use magnetotactic bacteria as a model system where two proteins, MamJ and MamK, are used to assemble magnetic particles called magnetosomes. The filament polymerizes out of MamK and the magnetosomes are connected via the linker MamJ. Our system reveals that bacterial filamentous structures are more fragile than the connection of biomineralized particles to this filament. More importantly, we anticipate the technique to find wide applicability for the study and quantification of biological processes in living cells and at high resolution.

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. nrs.04021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen L. Koterba ◽  
Brian G. Rowan

Bioluminescent resonance energy transfer (BRET2) is a recently developed technology for the measurement of protein-protein interactions in a live, cell-based system. BRET2 is characterized by the efficient transfer of excited energy between a bioluminescent donor molecule (Renilla luciferase) and a fluorescent acceptor molecule (a mutant of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP2)). The BRET2 assay offers advantages over fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) because it does not require an external light source thereby eliminating problems of photobleaching and autoflourescence. The absence of contamination by light results in low background that permits detection of very small changes in the BRET2 signal. BRET2 is dependent on the orientation and distance between two fusion proteins and therefore requires extensive preliminary standardization experiments to conclude a positive BRET2 signal independent of variations in protein titrations and arrangement in tertiary structures. Estrogen receptor (ER) signaling is modulated by steroid receptor coactivator 1 (SRC-1). To establish BRET2 in a ligand inducible system we used SRC-1 as the donor moiety and ER as the acceptor moiety. Expression and functionality of the fusion proteins were assessed by transient transfection in HEK-293 cells followed by Western blot analysis and measurement of ER-dependent reporter gene activity. These preliminary determinations are required prior to measuring nuclear receptor protein-protein interactions by BRET2. This article describes in detail the BRET2 methodology for measuring interaction between full-length ER and coregulator proteins in real-time, in an in vivo environment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (46) ◽  
pp. E10859-E10868 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuwei Li ◽  
Jason A. Junge ◽  
Cosimo Arnesano ◽  
Garrett G. Gross ◽  
Jeffrey H. Miner ◽  
...  

Vertebrate embryogenesis and organogenesis are driven by cell biological processes, ranging from mitosis and migration to changes in cell size and polarity, but their control and causal relationships are not fully defined. Here, we use the developing limb skeleton to better define the relationships between mitosis and cell polarity. We combine protein-tagging and -perturbation reagents with advanced in vivo imaging to assess the role of Discs large 1 (Dlg1), a membrane-associated scaffolding protein, in mediating the spatiotemporal relationship between cytokinesis and cell polarity. Our results reveal that Dlg1 is enriched at the midbody during cytokinesis and that its multimerization is essential for the normal polarity of daughter cells. Defects in this process alter tissue dimensions without impacting other cellular processes. Our results extend the conventional view that division orientation is established at metaphase and anaphase and suggest that multiple mechanisms act at distinct phases of the cell cycle to transmit cell polarity. The approach employed can be used in other systems, as it offers a robust means to follow and to eliminate protein function and extends the Phasor approach for studying in vivo protein interactions by frequency-domain fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy of Förster resonance energy transfer (FLIM-FRET) to organotypic explant culture.


Biosensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Skruzny ◽  
Pohl ◽  
Abella

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) microscopy is a powerful fluorescence microscopy method to study the nanoscale organization of multiprotein assemblies in vivo. Moreover, many biochemical and biophysical processes can be followed by employing sophisticated FRET biosensors directly in living cells. Here, we summarize existing FRET experiments and biosensors applied in yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe, two important models of fundamental biomedical research and efficient platforms for analyses of bioactive molecules. We aim to provide a practical guide on suitable FRET techniques, fluorescent proteins, and experimental setups available for successful FRET experiments in yeasts.


2006 ◽  
Vol 282 (7) ◽  
pp. 4417-4426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cicerone Tudor ◽  
Jérôme N. Feige ◽  
Harikishore Pingali ◽  
Vidya Bhushan Lohray ◽  
Walter Wahli ◽  
...  

The nucleus is an extremely dynamic compartment, and protein mobility represents a key factor in transcriptional regulation. We showed in a previous study that the diffusion of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs), a family of nuclear receptors regulating major cellular and metabolic functions, is modulated by ligand binding. In this study, we combine fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, dual color fluorescence cross-correlation microscopy, and fluorescence resonance energy transfer to dissect the molecular mechanisms controlling PPAR mobility and transcriptional activity in living cells. First, we bring new evidence that in vivo a high percentage of PPARs and retinoid X receptors is associated even in the absence of ligand. Second, we demonstrate that coregulator recruitment (and not DNA binding) plays a crucial role in receptor mobility, suggesting that transcriptional complexes are formed prior to promoter binding. In addition, association with coactivators in the absence of a ligand in living cells, both through the N-terminal AB domain and the AF-2 function of the ligand binding domain, provides a molecular basis to explain PPAR constitutive activity.


2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 1218-1230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicja J. Copik ◽  
M. Scott Webb ◽  
Aaron L. Miller ◽  
Yongxin Wang ◽  
Raj Kumar ◽  
...  

Abstract The mechanism through which the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) stimulates transcription is still unclear, although it is clear that the GR affects assembly of the transcriptional machinery. The binding of the TATA-binding protein (TBP) to the TATA-box is accepted as essential in this process. It is known that the GR can interact in vitro with TBP, but the direct interaction of TBP with GR has not been previously characterized quantitatively and has not been appreciated as an important step in assembling the transcriptional complex. Herein, we demonstrate that the TBP-GR interaction is functionally significant by characterizing the association of TBP and GR in vitro by a combination of techniques and confirming the role of this interaction in vivo. Combined analysis, using native gel electrophoresis, sedimentation equilibrium, and isothermal microcalorimetry titrations, characterize the stoichiometry, affinity, and thermodynamics of the TBP-GR interaction. TBP binds recombinant GR activation function 1 (AF1) with a 1:2 stoichiometry and a dissociation constant in the nanomolar range. In vivo fluorescence resonance energy transfer experiments, using fluorescently labeled TBP and various GR constructs, transiently transfected into CV-1 cells, show GR-TBP interactions, dependent on AF1. AF1-deletion variants showed fluorescence resonance energy transfer efficiencies on the level of coexpressed cyan fluorescent protein and yellow fluorescent protein, indicating that the interaction is dependent on AF1 domain. To demonstrate the functional role of the in vivo GR-TBP interaction, increased amounts of TBP expressed in vivo stimulated expression of GR-driven reporters and endogenous genes, and the effect was also specifically dependent on AF1.


2007 ◽  
Vol 407 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Russwurm ◽  
Florian Mullershausen ◽  
Andreas Friebe ◽  
Ronald Jäger ◽  
Corina Russwurm ◽  
...  

The intracellular signalling molecule cGMP regulates a variety of physiological processes, and so the ability to monitor cGMP dynamics in living cells is highly desirable. Here, we report a systematic approach to create FRET (fluorescence resonance energy transfer)-based cGMP indicators from two known types of cGMP-binding domains which are found in cGMP-dependent protein kinase and phosphodiesterase 5, cNMP-BD [cyclic nucleotide monophosphate-binding domain and GAF [cGMP-specific and -stimulated phosphodiesterases, Anabaena adenylate cyclases and Escherichia coli FhlA] respectively. Interestingly, only cGMP-binding domains arranged in tandem configuration as in their parent proteins were cGMP-responsive. However, the GAF-derived sensors were unable to be used to study cGMP dynamics because of slow response kinetics to cGMP. Out of 24 cGMP-responsive constructs derived from cNMP-BDs, three were selected to cover a range of cGMP affinities with an EC50 between 500 nM and 6 μM. These indicators possess excellent specifity for cGMP, fast binding kinetics and twice the dynamic range of existing cGMP sensors. The in vivo performance of these new indicators is demonstrated in living cells and validated by comparison with cGMP dynamics as measured by radioimmunoassays.


1999 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 3-4
Author(s):  
Stephen W. Carmichael

Many intracellular proteins are catalysts that regulate cellular functions. These catalysts can be assayed to determine their functional state, but untii now it was not possible to simultaneously obtain a functional analysis and spatial data. Tony Ng, Anthony Squire, and others, working in the laboratories of Phillippe Bastiaens and Peter Parker, have combined Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) with Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) to spatially resolve the activation of a protein catalyst within living cells. Their technique was also applied to fixed cells.


2013 ◽  
Vol 305 (11) ◽  
pp. C1161-C1169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiuju Li ◽  
Daniel Prins ◽  
Marek Michalak ◽  
Larry Fliegel

The mammalian Na+/H+ exchanger isoform 1 (NHE1) is a ubiquitous plasma membrane protein that regulates intracellular pH by removing a single proton (H+) in exchange for one extracellular Na+. The human protein contains a ∼500-amino acid membrane domain and a regulatory, ∼315-amino acid cytosolic domain. NHE1 is activated by a number of hormones including endothelin (ET) and by Ca2+. The regulatory tail possesses an inhibitory calmodulin (CaM)-binding domain, and inhibition of NHE1 is relieved by binding of a Ca2+-CaM complex. We examined the dynamics of ET-1 and Ca2+ regulation of binding to NHE1 in vivo. CFP was linked to the NHE1 protein cytoplasmic COOH terminus. This was stably transfected into AP-1 cells that are devoid of their own NHE1 protein. The protein was expressed and targeted properly and retained NHE1 activity comparable to the wild-type protein. We examined the in vivo coupling of NHE1 to CaM by Förster resonance energy transfer using CaM linked to the fluorescent protein Venus. CaM interaction with NHE1 was dynamic. Removal of serum reduced CaM interaction with NHE1. Addition of the Ca2+ ionophore ionomycin increased the interaction between CaM and NHE1. We expressed an ET receptor in AP-1 cells and also found a time-dependent association of NHE1 with CaM in vivo that was dependent on ET treatment. The results are the first demonstration of the in vivo association of NHE1 and CaM through ET-dependent signaling pathways.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalina T. Haas ◽  
Maximilian W. Fries ◽  
Ashok R. Venkitaraman ◽  
Alessandro Esposito

Revealing mechanisms underpinning cell function requires understanding the relationship between different biochemical reactions in living cells. However, our capabilities to monitor more than two biochemical reactions in living cells are limited. Therefore, the development of methods for real-time biochemical multiplexing is of fundamental importance. Here, we show that data acquired with multicolor (mcFLIM) or spectrally resolved (sFLIM) fluorescence lifetime imaging can be conveniently described with multidimensional phasor transforms. We demonstrate a computational framework capable of demixing three Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) probes and quantifying multiplexed biochemical activities in single living cells. We provide a comparison between mcFLIM and sFLIM suggesting that sFLIM might be advantageous for the future development of heavily multiplexed assays. However, mcFLIM—more readily available with commercial systems—can be applied for the concomitant monitoring of three enzymes in living cells without significant losses.


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