A green to red photoconvertible protein as analyzing tool for early vertebrate development

Wacker, S.A., Oswald, F., Wiedenmann, J. and Knochel, W. (2007) A green to red photoconvertible protein as analyzing tool for early vertebrate development. Developmental Dynamics, 236 (2), 473-480. (doi:10.1002/dvdy.20955).

Abstract

Lineage labeling is one of the most important techniques in developmental biology. Most recently, a set of photoactivatable fluorescent proteins originating from marine cnidarians became available. Here, we introduce the application of the green to red photoconvertible protein EosFP as a novel technique to analyze early vertebrate development. Both injection of EosFP mRNA and purified, recombinant EosFP followed by a lightdriven green to red conversion allow lineage labeling in virtually any temporal and spatial dimension during embryonic development for at least 2 weeks. Specific staining of cells from nonsurface layers is greatly facilitated by light-driven conversion of EosFP compared with traditional methods. Therefore, green to red photoactivatable proteins promise to be a powerful tool with the potential to satisfy the increasing demand for methods enabling detailed phenotypical analyses after manipulations of morphogenetic events, gene expression, or signal transduction.

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Contributors

Author: J. Wiedenmann

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