Monomerization of the photoconvertible fluorescent protein SAASoti by rational mutagenesis of single amino acids

Photoconvertible fluorescent proteins (PCFPs) are widely used as markers for the visualization of intracellular processes and for sub-diffraction single-molecule localization microscopy. Although wild type of a new photoconvertible fluorescent protein SAASoti tends to aggregate, we succeeded, via rational mutagenesis, to obtain variants that formed either tetramers or monomers. We compare two approaches: one is based on the structural similarity between SAASoti and Kaede, which helped us to identify a single point mutation (V127T) at the protein’s hydrophobic interface that leads to monomerization. The other is based on a chemical modification of amino groups of SAASoti with succinic anhydride, which converts the protein aggregates into monomers. Mass-spectrometric analysis helped us to identify that the modification of a single ε-amino group of lysine K145 in the strongly charged interface AB was sufficient to convert the protein into its tetrameric form. Furthermore, site-directed mutagenesis was used to generate mutants that proved to be either monomeric or tetrameric, both capable of rapid green-to-red photoconversion. This allows SAASoti to be used as a photoconvertible fluorescent marker for in vivo cell studies.