Plasmonic Enhancement of Fluorescence and Protein Dynamics in Living Mammalian Cells
Abstract
ABSTRACT This study shows that coupling to designed plasmonic nanoparticles can modulate the electrophysiological function of proteins in living mammalian cells. Nanostar‐shaped particles, that are robust to biological noise, are designed to enable near‐field‐coupling to plasma membrane‐localized mutated Archaerhodopsin proteins in live cells. The coupled rhodopsins exhibit enhanced fluorescence and an increased response speed to membrane voltage. Incorporating this plasmonic enhancement into a Markov chain photocycle model of the Archaerhodopsin mutant QuasAr6a, shows an increased fluorescence emission rate and manipulation of the protein dynamics through a combination of photocycle transition rate enhancements. The results show an improvement in fluorescence and voltage‐response dynamics of the functional QuasAr6a Archaerhodopsin mutant, beyond what has been achievable through genetic engineering. This opens up possibilities for engineering the biological functionality of proteins through plasmonics: manipulating protein photocycles could improve light sensitivity, change optogenetic applications, and lead to fluorescent biosensors with enhanced dynamics.
Article Details
Authors (17)
Marco Locarno
Department of Imaging Physics Delft University of Technology Delft The Netherlands
Qiangrui Dong
Department of Imaging Physics Delft University of Technology Delft The Netherlands
Marco Post
St.Antoius Hospital, Nieuwegein, Netherlands
Xin Meng
Cristiano Glessi
Department of Imaging Physics Delft University of Technology Delft The Netherlands
Nynke Marije Hettema
Department of Bionanoscience Delft University of Technology Delft The Netherlands
Nidas Brandsma
Department of Imaging Physics Delft University of Technology Delft The Netherlands
Sebbe Blokhuizen
Department of Imaging Physics Delft University of Technology Delft The Netherlands
Alejandro Castañeda Garcia
Department of Imaging Physics Delft University of Technology Delft The Netherlands
Srividya Ganapathy
Department of Imaging Physics Delft University of Technology Delft The Netherlands
Thieme Schmidt
Department of Imaging Physics Delft University of Technology Delft The Netherlands
Lars van Roemburg
Department of Imaging Physics Delft University of Technology Delft The Netherlands
Bing Xu
Chun‐Ting Cho
Department of Radiation Science and Technology Delft University of Technology Delft The Netherlands
Liedewij Laan
Miao‐Ping Chien
Department of Molecular Genetics Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam The Netherlands
Daan Brinks
Department of Imaging Physics Delft University of Technology Delft The Netherlands