Fluorogen-activating proteins as biosensors of cell-surface proteins in living cells

Abstract

This study explores the general utility of a new class of biosensor that allows one to selectively visualize molecules of a chosen membrane protein that are at the cell surface. These biosensors make use of recently described bipartite fluoromodules comprised of a fluorogen-activating protein (FAP) and a small molecule (fluorogen) whose fluorescence increases dramatically when noncovalently bound by the FAP (Szent-Gyorgyi et al., Nat Biotechnol 2008;26:235-240). © 2010 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry.