CHAPTER 3: The Glowing Panoply of Fluorogen-based Markers for Advanced Bioimaging

The biological sciences nowadays rely extensively on imaging tools to decipher the complexity of living organisms. Fluorescence microscopy allows the study of biological processes with unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution. The revolution in fluorescence imaging has been the development of a large toolbox of fluorescent proteins able to reveal the abundance, position and dynamics of proteins. The fluorescence toolbox has recently been expanded with innovative reporters that permit proteins, and other biomolecules such as RNA, to be visualized in new ways. These innovative reporters are bipartite systems composed of a genetically encoded tag forming a fluorescent complex with a small organic fluorogenic chromophore (also called fluorogens). This chapter is a user-oriented presentation of some of the most mature fluorogen-based markers available to biologists.