A green lifetime biosensor for calcium that remains bright over its full dynamic range

Fluorescent biosensors toggle between two states, and for the vast majority of biosensors, one state is bright and the other state is dim. As a consequence, there is a substantial difference in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the two states. The dim state has a low SNR, which is problematic when precise, quantitative measurements are needed. During the engineering of a red-shifted variant of an mTurquoise-based calcium sensor, we serendipitously generated a green-emitting sensor that shows high brightness in both the calcium-bound and -unbound state, while still showing a calcium-dependent lifetime change of >1 ns. This sensor, named G-Ca-FLITS, is comparable in brightness to the bright state of GCaMP3 and jGCaMP7c in mammalian cells. The calcium-induced loss in fluorescence intensity is only around 30% and therefore we observe little variation in the SNR when calcium levels change. G-Ca-FLITS shows negligible sensitivity to pH in the physiological range, like its turquoise parent. Using fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM), we measured the calcium concentration with G-Ca-FLITS in various organelles and observed in HeLa cells transient and spatially heterogeneous calcium elevations in mitochondria. Finally, we evaluated the use of G-Ca-FLITS and its turquoise predecessor for two-photon FLIM in Drosophila brains.