Organelle membrane-specific chemical labeling and dynamic imaging in living cells.

Nat Chem Biol

Department of Synthetic Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.

Published: December 2020

AI Article Synopsis

  • Lipids are essential for various cellular functions, but understanding their movement and roles in cells has been challenging due to limited imaging methods.
  • The authors developed a new technique for selectively labeling and visualizing phosphatidylcholine in specific organelles using a metabolic marker and bioorthogonal reactions.
  • This approach enabled live-cell imaging that provided direct evidence of how the autophagosomal membrane forms from the endoplasmic reticulum, offering a powerful tool for studying lipid transport in real-time.

Article Abstract

Lipids play crucial roles as structural elements, signaling molecules and material transporters in cells. However, the functions and dynamics of lipids within cells remain unclear because of a lack of methods to selectively label lipids in specific organelles and trace their movement by live-cell imaging. We describe here a technology for the selective labeling and fluorescence imaging (microscopic or nanoscopic) of phosphatidylcholine in target organelles. This approach involves the metabolic incorporation of azido-choline, followed by a spatially limited bioorthogonal reaction that enables the visualization and quantitative analysis of interorganelle lipid transport in live cells. More importantly, with live-cell imaging, we obtained direct evidence that the autophagosomal membrane originates from the endoplasmic reticulum. This method is simple and robust and is thus powerful for real-time tracing of interorganelle lipid trafficking.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41589-020-00651-zDOI Listing

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