Fluorescent protein voltage probes derived from ArcLight that respond to membrane voltage changes with fast kinetics

PLoS One. 2013 Nov 27;8(11):e81295. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0081295. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

We previously reported the discovery of a fluorescent protein voltage probe, ArcLight, and its derivatives that exhibit large changes in fluorescence intensity in response to changes of plasma membrane voltage. ArcLight allows the reliable detection of single action potentials and sub-threshold activities in individual neurons and dendrites. The response kinetics of ArcLight (τ1-on ~10 ms, τ2-on ~ 50 ms) are comparable with most published genetically-encoded voltage probes. However, probes using voltage-sensing domains other than that from the Ciona intestinalis voltage sensitive phosphatase exhibit faster kinetics. Here we report new versions of ArcLight, in which the Ciona voltage-sensing domain was replaced with those from chicken, zebrafish, frog, mouse or human. We found that the chicken and zebrafish-based ArcLight exhibit faster kinetics, with a time constant (τ) less than 6 ms for a 100 mV depolarization. Although the response amplitude of these two probes (8-9%) is not as large as the Ciona-based ArcLight (~35%), they are better at reporting action potentials from cultured neurons at higher frequency. In contrast, probes based on frog, mouse and human voltage sensing domains were either slower than the Ciona-based ArcLight or had very small signals.

Publication types

  • Research Support, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Action Potentials*
  • Animals
  • Cell Membrane / metabolism*
  • HEK293 Cells
  • Humans
  • Kinetics
  • Luminescent Proteins / chemistry
  • Luminescent Proteins / metabolism*
  • Mice
  • Movement
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / chemistry
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / metabolism*
  • Species Specificity

Substances

  • Arclight fusion protein
  • Luminescent Proteins
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins