A decade of alkyne-tag Raman imaging (ATRI): applications in biological systems

Alkyne functional groups have Raman signatures in a region (1800 cm(−1) to 2800 cm(−1)) that is free from interference from cell components, known as the “silent region”, and alkyne signals in this region were first utilized a decade ago to visualize the nuclear localization of a thymidine analogue EdU. Since then, the strategy of Raman imaging of biological samples by using alkyne functional groups, called alkyne-tag Raman imaging (ATRI), has become widely used. This article reviews the applications of ATRI in biological samples ranging from organelles to whole animal models, and briefly discusses the prospects for this technique.