mScarlet3: a brilliant and fast-maturing red fluorescent protein

Theodorus Gadella (1) , Laura van Weeren (1) , Jente Stouthamer (1) , Mark Hink (1) , Anouk Wolters (2) , Ben Giepmans (3) , Sylvain Aumonier (4) , Jérôme Dupuy (4) , Antoine Royant (5, 4)

1 Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences
2 Biomedical Sciences of Cells & Systems
3 Biomedical Sciences of Cells & Systems
4 IBS - UMR 5075 - Institut de biologie structurale
5 ESRF - European Synchrotron Radiation Facility

We report the evolution of mScarlet3, a cysteine-free monomeric red fluorescent protein with fast and complete maturation, as well as record brightness, quantum yield (75%) and fluorescence lifetime (4.0 ns). The mScarlet3 crystal structure reveals a barrel rigidified at one of its heads by a large hydrophobic patch of internal residues. mScarlet3 behaves well as a fusion tag, displays no apparent cytotoxicity and it surpasses existing red fluorescent proteins as a Förster resonance energy transfer acceptor and as a reporter in transient expression systems.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Theodorus Gadella, Laura van Weeren, Jente Stouthamer, Mark Hink, Anouk Wolters, et al.. mScarlet3: a brilliant and fast-maturing red fluorescent protein. Nature Methods, 2023, 20 (4), pp.541-545. ⟨10.1038/s41592-023-01809-y⟩. ⟨hal-04162894⟩