posted on 2024-01-26, 13:35authored byXingfu Zhu, Qiang Chen, Hao Zhao, Qiqi Yang, Goudappagouda, Márton Gelléri, Sandra Ritz, David Ng, Kaloian Koynov, Sapun H. Parekh, Venkatesh Kumar Chetty, Basant Kumar Thakur, Christoph Cremer, Katharina Landfester, Klaus Müllen, Marco Terenzio, Mischa Bonn, Akimitsu Narita, Xiaomin Liu
Single-molecule localization
microscopy (SMLM) is a powerful technique
to achieve super-resolution imaging beyond the diffraction limit.
Although various types of blinking fluorophores are currently considered
for SMLM, intrinsic blinking fluorophores remain rare at the single-molecule
level. Here, we report the synthesis of nanographene-based intrinsic
burst-blinking fluorophores for highly versatile SMLM. We image amyloid
fibrils in air and in various pH solutions without any additive and
lysosome dynamics in live mammalian cells under physiological conditions.
In addition, the single-molecule labeling of nascent proteins in primary
sensory neurons was achieved with azide-functionalized nanographenes
via click chemistry. SMLM imaging reveals higher local translation
at axonal branching with unprecedented detail, while the size of translation
foci remained similar throughout the entire network. These various
results demonstrate the potential of nanographene-based fluorophores
to drastically expand the applicability of super-resolution imaging.