Spinach-based RNA mimicking GFP in plant cells
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Updated: Sep 30, 2025

Screening and Identification of RNA Silencing Suppressors from Secreted Effectors of Plant Pathogens
Published on: February 3, 2020
Zhiming Yu1, Yue Wang2, Fengling Mei2
1Research Centre for Plant RNA Signaling, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China. yuzhiming@hznu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Spinach RNA-mimicking GFP (S-RMG) has been successfully used to monitor cellular RNAs including microRNAs in bacterium, yeast, and human cells. However, S-RMG has not been established in plants. In this study, we found that like bacterial, yeast, and human cellular tRNAs, plant tRNAs such as tRNALys can protect and/or stabilize the Spinach RNA aptamer interaction with the fluorophore DFHBI enabling detectable levels of green fluorescence to be emitted. The tRNALys-Spinach-tRNALys, once delivered into "chloroplast-free" onion epidermal cells can emit strong green fluorescence in the presence of DFHBI. Our results demonstrate for the first time that Spinach-based RNA visualization has the potential for in vivo monitoring of RNAs in plant cells.
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