A general method to optimize and functionalize red-shifted rhodamine dyes.

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Nature Methods. 2020 Jul 27;. doi: 10.1038/s41592-020-0909-6

A general method to optimize and functionalize red-shifted rhodamine dyes. Liu (Zhe) LabLippincott-Schwartz LabLavis LabTool Translation Team (T3) Cell and Tissue CultureAnatomy and HistologyVivarium

Grimm JB, Tkachuk AN, Xie L, Choi H, Mohar B, Falco N, Schaefer K, Patel R, Zheng Q, Liu Z, Lippincott-Schwartz J, Brown TA, Lavis LD

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Abstract

Expanding the palette of fluorescent dyes is vital to push the frontier of biological imaging. Although rhodamine dyes remain the premier type of small-molecule fluorophore owing to their bioavailability and brightness, variants excited with far-red or near-infrared light suffer from poor performance due to their propensity to adopt a lipophilic, nonfluorescent form. We report a framework for rationalizing rhodamine behavior in biological environments and a general chemical modification for rhodamines that optimizes long-wavelength variants and enables facile functionalization with different chemical groups. This strategy yields red-shifted 'Janelia Fluor' (JF) dyes useful for biological imaging experiments in cells and in vivo.