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Updated: Oct 26, 2025

Fluorescent Labeling of COS-7 Expressing SNAP-tag Fusion Proteins for Live Cell Imaging
Published on: May 17, 2010
Versatile On-Demand Fluorescent Labeling of Fusion Proteins Using Fluorescence-Activating and Absorption-Shifting Tag
Arnaud Gautier1,2, Ludovic Jullien3, Chenge Li3,4,5
1Sorbonne Université, École Normale Supérieure, Université PSL, CNRS, Laboratoire des Biomolécules, LBM, Paris, France. arnaud.gautier@sorbonne-universite.fr.
Abstract:
Observing the localization, the concentration, and the distribution of proteins in cells or organisms is essential to understand theirs functions. General and versatile methods allowing multiplexed imaging of proteins under a large variety of experimental conditions are thus essential for deciphering the inner workings of cells and organisms. Here, we present a general method based on the non-covalent labeling of a small protein tag, named FAST (fluorescence-activating and absorption-shifting tag), with various fluorogenic ligands that light up upon labeling, which makes the simple, robust, and versatile on-demand labeling of fusion proteins in a wide range of experimental systems possible.
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