PUBLICATION

Visualizing long-term single-molecule dynamics in vivo by stochastic protein labeling

Authors
Liu, H., Dong, P., Ioannou, M.S., Li, L., Shea, J., Pasolli, H.A., Grimm, J.B., Rivlin, P.K., Lavis, L.D., Koyama, M., Liu, Z.
ID
ZDB-PUB-171230-2
Date
2017
Source
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America   115(2): 343-348 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Keywords
long-term single-molecule imaging, stochastic labeling, synaptic vesicle transport, transcription factor dynamics, translational readthrough
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Binding Sites
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Tracking/methods*
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Humans
  • Kinetics
  • Neurons/cytology
  • Neurons/metabolism*
  • Synaptic Vesicles/metabolism*
  • Time-Lapse Imaging/methods
  • Transcription Factors/metabolism*
  • Zebrafish
PubMed
29284749 Full text @ Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
Abstract
Our ability to unambiguously image and track individual molecules in live cells is limited by packing of multiple copies of labeled molecules within the resolution limit. Here we devise a universal genetic strategy to precisely control copy number of fluorescently labeled molecules in a cell. This system has a dynamic range of ∼10,000-fold, enabling sparse labeling of proteins expressed at different abundance levels. Combined with photostable labels, this system extends the duration of automated single-molecule tracking by two orders of magnitude. We demonstrate long-term imaging of synaptic vesicle dynamics in cultured neurons as well as in intact zebrafish. We found axon initial segment utilizes a "waterfall" mechanism gating synaptic vesicle transport polarity by promoting anterograde transport processivity. Long-time observation also reveals that transcription factor hops between clustered binding sites in spatially restricted subnuclear regions, suggesting that topological structures in the nucleus shape local gene activities by a sequestering mechanism. This strategy thus greatly expands the spatiotemporal length scales of live-cell single-molecule measurements, enabling new experiments to quantitatively understand complex control of molecular dynamics in vivo.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping