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Near-infrared fluorescent proteins

Abstract

Fluorescent proteins with emission wavelengths in the near-infrared and infrared range are in high demand for whole-body imaging techniques. Here we report near-infrared dimeric fluorescent proteins eqFP650 and eqFP670. To our knowledge, eqFP650 is the brightest fluorescent protein with emission maximum above 635 nm, and eqFP670 displays the most red-shifted emission maximum and high photostability.

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Figure 1: Cytotoxicity and spectral characteristics.
Figure 2: Whole-mouse imaging with IVIS Spectrum system (Caliper).
Figure 3: Whole-mouse infrared imaging with the Biospec system.

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Accessions

GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ

Protein Data Bank

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Acknowledgements

We thank J.M. Steele for technical assistance with mouse experiments and B.S. Glick (University of Chicago) for providing the plasmid encoding E2-Crimson. This work was supported by grants from the Molecular and Cell Biology program of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (55005618), the US National Institutes of Health (R01CA136553, R01CA136829 and P50CA093990), Rosnauka (02.512.12.2053) and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (08-04-01702-à and 10-04-01042).

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

D.S., I.I.S. and L.S. developed fluorescent proteins. A.V.R. and V.B.L. performed experiments on a Biospec imaging system. K.E.L., B.T.S. and G.D.L. performed experiments on a Caliper IVIS spectrum imaging system. A.G.Z. performed experiments on Xenopus embryos. T.V.G. and E.A.S. grew cells and performed microscopy experiments. K.M.S. generated transgenic zebrafish. O.V.B. performed flow cytometry analysis. K.A.L., G.D.L. and D.M.C. designed and planned the project and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dmitriy M Chudakov.

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Competing interests

eqFP650 and eqFP670 are property of Evrogen JSC, Moscow, Russia. K.A.L. and D.M.C. have interest in Evrogen JSC. T.V.G. is employed by Evrogen JSC.

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Shcherbo, D., Shemiakina, I., Ryabova, A. et al. Near-infrared fluorescent proteins. Nat Methods 7, 827–829 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.1501

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