PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Bastian Bühler
AU  - Anja Benderoth
AU  - Daniel Englert
AU  - Franziska Grün
AU  - Janin Schokolowski
AU  - Andres Jäschke
AU  - Murat Sunbul
TI  - Bright, fluorogenic and photostable avidity probes for RNA imaging
AID  - 10.1101/2021.11.02.466936
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.11.02.466936
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/02/2021.11.02.466936.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/02/2021.11.02.466936.full
AB  - Fluorescent light-up aptamers (FLAPs) emerged as valuable tools to visualize RNA, but are mostly limited by poor brightness, low photostability and high fluorescence background. In this study, we combine bivalent (silicon) rhodamine fluorophores with dimeric FLAPs to yield bright and photostable complexes with low picomolar dissociation constants. Our avidity-based approach resulted in extreme binding strength and high fluorogenicity, enabling single mRNA tracking in living cells.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.