Abstract
We report detailed characterizations of stochastic fluorescence switching of unmodified nucleic acids under visible light illumination. Although the fluorescent emission from nucleic acids under the visible light illumination has long been overlooked due to their apparent low absorption cross section, our quantitative characterizations reveal the high quantum yield and high photon count in individual fluorescence emission events of nucleic acids at physiological concentrations. Owing to these characteristics, the stochastic fluorescence switching of nucleic acids could be comparable to that of some of the most potent exogenous fluorescence probes for localization-based super-resolution imaging. Therefore, utilizing the principle of single-molecule photon-localization microscopy, native nucleic acids could be ideal candidates for optical label-free super-resolution imaging.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 7929-7944 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Optics Express |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 3 2017 |
Funding
National Institutes of Health (NIH) (R24EY022883, DP3DK108248, F30EY026472, U54CA193419, R01CA165309, T32GM008152, T32HL076139); National Science Foundation (NSF) (DBI-1353952, DGE-0824162, CBET-1055379, CBET-1240416, EEC-1530734); Research Catalyst Award by Northwestern McCormick School of Engineering. We thank Dr. Michael R. Wasielewski for the support in photochemistry studies and Dr. Ryan M. Young and Mr. Yilei Wu for their assistance in spectroscopic measurements. We thank the Integrated Molecular Structure Education and Research Center at Northwestern University for mass spectrometry measurements. We thank Dr. Arabela Grigorescu and Theint Aung from the Northwestern University Keck Biophysics Core Facility for their assistance in size exclusion chromatography of polynucleotides.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics