In Situ Spatial Complementation of Aptamer‐Mediated Recognition Enables Live‐Cell Imaging of Native RNA Transcripts in Real Time |
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| Authors: | Zejun Wang Yao Luo Xiaodong Xie Xingjie Hu Prof. Haiyun Song Prof. Yun Zhao Dr. Jiye Shi Prof. Lihua Wang Dr. Gennadi Glinsky Prof. Nan Chen Prof. Ratnesh Lal Prof. Chunhai Fan |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Division of Physical Biology & Bioimaging Center, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China;2. School of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China;3. Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China;4. UCB Pharma, Slough, UK;5. University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA |
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| Abstract: | Direct cellular imaging of the localization and dynamics of biomolecules helps to understand their function and reveals novel mechanisms at the single‐cell resolution. In contrast to routine fluorescent‐protein‐based protein imaging, technology for RNA imaging remains less well explored because of the lack of enabling technology. Herein, we report the development of an aptamer‐initiated fluorescence complementation (AiFC) method for RNA imaging by engineering a green fluorescence protein (GFP)‐mimicking turn‐on RNA aptamer, Broccoli, into two split fragments that could tandemly bind to target mRNA. When genetically encoded in cells, endogenous mRNA molecules recruited Split‐Broccoli and brought the two fragments into spatial proximity, which formed a fluorophore‐binding site in situ and turned on fluorescence. Significantly, we demonstrated the use of AiFC for high‐contrast and real‐time imaging of endogenous RNA molecules in living mammalian cells. We envision wide application and practical utility of this enabling technology to in vivo single‐cell visualization and mechanistic analysis of macromolecular interactions. |
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| Keywords: | bioanalysis cellular imaging fluorescence mRNA split aptamers |
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