Publication

SiR‐XActin: A Fluorescent Probe for Imaging Actin Dynamics in Live Cells

Kai Johnsson
2025

Abstract

Imaging actin‐dependent processes in live cells is important for understanding numerous biological processes. However, currently used natural‐product‐based fluorescent probes for actin filaments affect the dynamics of actin polymerization and can induce undesired cellular phenotypes. Here, we introduce SiR‐XActin, a simplified jasplakinolide‐based, far‐red fluorescent probe that enables bright and photostable staining in various cell types without requiring genetic modifications. Due to its relatively weak binding affinity, the probe exhibits minimal cytotoxicity and labels actin filaments without significantly altering actin dynamics. Furthermore, SiR‐XActin is suitable for time‐resolved, live‐cell super‐resolution STED microscopy. Exchanging the SiR fluorophore in SiR‐XActin for other fluorophores yields probes in different colors. All these properties make SiR‐XActin and its analogs powerful tools for studying actin dynamics using live‐cell fluorescence microscopy.

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/entities/publication/e5a72ceb-fc93-4e06-95dd-202782c7efd2

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Kai Johnsson
2025

Abstract

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/entities/publication/e5a72ceb-fc93-4e06-95dd-202782c7efd2

About this result

Related concepts (32)

Actin

Actin is a family of globular multi-functional proteins that form microfilaments in the cytoskeleton, and the thin filaments in muscle fibrils. It is found in essentially all eukaryotic cells, where it may be present at a concentration of over 100 μM; its mass is roughly 42 kDa, with a diameter of 4 to 7 nm. An actin protein is the monomeric subunit of two types of filaments in cells: microfilaments, one of the three major components of the cytoskeleton, and thin filaments, part of the contractile apparatus in muscle cells.

Fluorophore

A fluorophore (or fluorochrome, similarly to a chromophore) is a fluorescent chemical compound that can re-emit light upon light excitation. Fluorophores typically contain several combined aromatic groups, or planar or cyclic molecules with several π bonds. Fluorophores are sometimes used alone, as a tracer in fluids, as a dye for staining of certain structures, as a substrate of enzymes, or as a probe or indicator (when its fluorescence is affected by environmental aspects such as polarity or ions).

Fluorescence microscope

A fluorescence microscope is an optical microscope that uses fluorescence instead of, or in addition to, scattering, reflection, and attenuation or absorption, to study the properties of organic or inorganic substances. "Fluorescence microscope" refers to any microscope that uses fluorescence to generate an image, whether it is a simple set up like an epifluorescence microscope or a more complicated design such as a confocal microscope, which uses optical sectioning to get better resolution of the fluorescence image.

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SiR‐XActin: A Fluorescent Probe for Imaging Actin Dynamics in Live Cells

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