Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Splitting or stacking fluorescent proteins to visualize mRNA in living cells

Nature Methods volume 4, pages 391–392 (2007)Cite this article

Several new approaches to tag mRNA allow real-time imaging of mRNA dynamics in living bacteria, yeast and human cells.

Amino acid sequence tags derived from GFP and its relatives have been instrumental in the exploration of intracellular distribution and dynamics of proteins. No similar genetically encoded RNA motif that exhibits intrinsic fluorescence for labeling RNA has yet been discovered, however. Three papers in this issue of Nature Methods present powerful new strategies for adopting fluorescent proteins as reporters for the imaging of specific mRNAs in live cells1,2,3. Valencia-Burton et al.1 and Ozawa et al.2 describe two methods in which mRNAs are revealed when they mediate reconstitution of a fluorescent protein from two nonfluorescent halves in bacteria and human cells, respectively, and Haim et al.3 describe a scheme to tag yeast mRNAs on a genomic scale with GFP reporters.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Imaging endogenous mRNA in yeast.

Kim Caesar

Figure 2: Split GFP complementation for tagging mRNA in live cells.

Kim Caesar

References

  1. Valencia-Burton, M., McCullough R.M., Cantor, C.R. & Broude, N.E. Nat. Methods 4, 421–427 (2007).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Ozawa, T., Natori, Y., Sato, M. & Umezawa, Y. Nat. Methods 4, 413–419 (2007).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Haim, L., Zipor, G., Aronov, S. & Gerst J.E. Nat. Methods 4, 409–412 (2007).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Bratu, D.P., Cha, B.-J., Mhlanga, M.M., Kramer, F.R. & Tyagi, S. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100, 13308–13313 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Bertrand, E. et al. Mol. Cell 2, 437–445 (1998).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Fusco, D. et al. Curr. Biol. 13, 161–167 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Kerppola, T.K. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 7, 449–456 (2006).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Rackham, O. & Brown, C.M. EMBO J. 23, 3346–3355 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Wang, X., McLachlan, J., Zamore, P.D. & Hall, T.M. Cell 110, 501–512 (2002).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Cheom-Gil, C., Traci, M. & Tanaka, H. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103, 133635–133639 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The author's research is supported by US National Institutes of Health grant GM-070357.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sanjay Tyagi is at the Public Health Research Institute, New Jersey Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, 225 Warren Street, Newark, New Jersey 07103, USA. tyagisa@umdnj.eduCambridge,

    Sanjay Tyagi

Authors
  1. Sanjay Tyagi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tyagi, S. Splitting or stacking fluorescent proteins to visualize mRNA in living cells. Nat Methods 4, 391–392 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth0507-391

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth0507-391

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing