One Stone, Three Birds: A Smart Single Fluorescent Probe for Simultaneous and Discriminative Imaging of Lysosomes, Lipid Droplets, and Mitochondria

Complex intracellular life processes are usually completed through the cooperation of multiple organelles. Real-time tracking of the interplays between multiple organelles with a single fluorescent probe (SFP) is very helpful to deepen our understanding of complex biological processes. So far, SFP for simultaneously differentiating and visualizing of more than two different organelles has not been reported. Herein, we report an SFP (named ICM) that can be used for simultaneously differentiating and visualizing three important organelles: mitochondria, lysosomes, and lipid droplets (LDs). The probe can simultaneously light up mitochondria/lysosomes (∼700 nm) and LDs (∼480 nm) at significantly different emission wavelengths with high fidelity, and mitochondria and lysosomes can be effectively distinguished by their different shapes and fluorescence intensities. With this smart probe, real-time and simultaneous tracking of the interplays of these three organelles was successfully achieved for the first time.