A general method to optimize and functionalize red-shifted rhodamine dyes.

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Nature Methods. 2020 Jul 27;. doi: 10.1038/s41592-020-0909-6

A general method to optimize and functionalize red-shifted rhodamine dyes. Liu (Zhe) LabLippincott-Schwartz LabLavis LabTool Translation Team (T3) Stem Cell & Primary CultureAnatomy and HistologyVivarium

Grimm JB, Tkachuk AN, Xie L, Choi H, Mohar B, Falco N, Schaefer K, Patel R, Zheng Q, Liu Z, Lippincott-Schwartz J, Brown TA, Lavis LD

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Abstract

Expanding the palette of fluorescent dyes is vital to push the frontier of biological imaging. Although rhodamine dyes remain the premier type of small-molecule fluorophore owing to their bioavailability and brightness, variants excited with far-red or near-infrared light suffer from poor performance due to their propensity to adopt a lipophilic, nonfluorescent form. We report a framework for rationalizing rhodamine behavior in biological environments and a general chemical modification for rhodamines that optimizes long-wavelength variants and enables facile functionalization with different chemical groups. This strategy yields red-shifted 'Janelia Fluor' (JF) dyes useful for biological imaging experiments in cells and in vivo.