A photoswitchable orange-to-far-red fluorescent protein, PSmOrange

We report a monomeric PSmOrange protein that is initially orange (excitation and emission at 548 and 565 nm) but becomes far-red (excitation and emission at 636 and 662 nm) after irradiation with blue-green light. Compared to its parental orange proteins, PSmOrange has greater brightness, faster maturation, higher photoconversion contrast, and better photostability. The red-shifted spectra of both forms of PSmOrange enable its simultaneous use with cyan-to-green photoswitchable proteins to study four intracellular populations. Photoconverted PSmOrange has, to date, the most far-red excitation peak, provides diffraction-limited and super-resolution imaging in far-red range, is optimally excited with common red lasers, and can be photoconverted subcutaneously in a mouse. PSmOrange photoswitching occurs via a two-step photo-oxidation process, which causes cleavage of the polypeptide backbone. The far-red fluorescence of photoconverted PSmOrange results from a novel chromophore containing N-acylimine with a coplanar carbon-oxygen double bond.