Photoactivatable and photoswitchable proteins represent a new generation of specialised fluorescent tools for in vivo tracking of individual cells, organelles, and proteins
Dendra2 is an improved version of a green-to-red photoswitchable fluorescent protein Dendra, derived from octocoral Dendronephthya.
Compared to other available photoactivatable proteins, Dendra2 provides a unique combination of advantageous properties: monomeric state suitable for protein labelling, high contrast photoconverion (4000-fold) with fluorescence at the red spectral region, low-phototoxic activation with 488nm light available on common confocal microscopes, high photostability of the photoconverted state, and efficient chromophore maturation at 37C in mammalian cells.
These properties make Dendra2 an ideal tool for real time tracking of protein traffic and monitoring of individual cell movements.
Evrogen offers Dendra2 expression vectors that allow generation of Dendra2-tagged fusions and expression of these fusions or Dendra2 alone in mammalian and bacterial cells.
Reference: Gurskaya et al, Nat Biotechnol, Published online: 19 March 2006, doi:10.1038/nbt1191.
