Semi-automated single-molecule microscopy screening of fast-dissociating specific antibodies directly from hybridoma

Takushi Miyoshi1, Qianli Zhang2, Takafumi Miyake3

  • 1Laboratory of Single-Molecule Cell Biology, Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan; Department of Pharmacology, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan; Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan; Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.

Cell Reports
|February 3, 2021
PubMed

Fast-dissociating, specific antibodies are single-molecule imaging probes that transiently interact with their targets and are used in biological applications including image reconstruction by integrating exchangeable single-molecule localization (IRIS), a multiplexable super-resolution microscopy technique. Here, we introduce a semi-automated screen based on single-molecule total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy of antibody-antigen binding, which allows for identification of fast-dissociating monoclonal antibodies directly from thousands of hybridoma cultures. We develop monoclonal antibodies against three epitope tags (FLAG-tag, S-tag, and V5-tag) and two F-actin crosslinking proteins (plastin and espin). Specific antibodies show fast dissociation with half-lives ranging from 0.98 to 2.2 s. Unexpectedly, fast-dissociating yet specific antibodies are not so rare. A combination of fluorescently labeled Fab probes synthesized from these antibodies and light-sheet microscopy, such as dual-view inverted selective plane illumination microscopy (diSPIM), reveal rapid turnover of espin within long-lived F-actin cores of inner-ear sensory hair cell stereocilia, demonstrating that fast-dissociating specific antibodies can identify novel biological phenomena.