Nucleic Acid Stability in Glycine Betaine Solutions: Correlating Small Molecule Interactions with Nucleic Acid Surfaces

Abstract

CALI and the labelling specificity that fluorescent proteins provide is very useful to avoid uncontrolled photodamage. Indeed, fluorescent proteins have been successfully used in CALI, although of the inactivation mechanisms by ROS are dependent on the fluorescent protein used and are not fully understood [2,3]. Here, we present a quantitative study of the ability of TagRFP to produce ROS, in particular singlet oxygen. TagRFP is able to photosensitize singlet oxygen with an estimated quantum yield of 0.004 [4]. This is the first estimation of a quantum yield of singlet oxygen production value for a GFP-like protein. We also find that TagRFP has a short triplet lifetime, which reflects relatively high oxygen accessibility to the chromophore compared to EGFP. Our results provide photophysical insight that allows the understanding of the mechanism behind CALI. Moreover, it has implications in improving photobleaching in fluorescent proteins. [1] K.