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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2024.10.29.620873

Tools for intersectional optical and chemical tagging on cell surfaces

Innes-Gold, S.·Cheng, H.·Liu, L.·Cohen, A. E.
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Abstract

We present versatile tools for intersectional optical and chemical tagging of live cells. Photocaged tetrazines serve as "photo-click" adapters between recognition groups on the cell surface and diverse chemical payloads. We describe two new functionalized photocaged tetrazine structures which add a light-gating step to three common cell-targeting chemical methods: HaloTag/chloroalkane labeling, nonspecific primary amine labeling, and antibody labeling. We demonstrate light-gated versions of these three techniques in live cultured cells. We then explore two applications: monitoring tissue flows on the surface of developing zebrafish embryos, and combinatorial multicolor labeling and sorting of optically defined groups of cells. Photo-click adapters add optical control to cell tagging schemes, with modularity in both tag and cell attachment chemistry.

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Innes-Gold, S., Cheng, H., Liu, L., Cohen, A. E.. 2024-11-01. Tools for intersectional optical and chemical tagging on cell surfaces. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.29.620873

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