CoSiDeX: A hyperspectral fluorescent protein resource for highly multiplexed imaging

Abstract

Fluorescent proteins (FPs) have revolutionized spatiotemporal observations in biology. Yet, the design of multiplexed assays remains constrained by limited spectral characterization and palette validation. Although over 1,000 FPs have been catalogued, systematic resources for characterizing their use in multiplexed approaches are lacking. Here we present a resource and methodology for selecting and decoding FPs in multiplexed imaging experiments. A library of forty-four FPs was built for rapid assembly into mammalian expression vectors and transposase-mediated integration. Hyperspectral imaging was performed for each FP and spectral space was characterized mathematically. To support experimental design and data interpretation, we developed the Cosine Similarity Decoder of XFP (CoSiDeX) toolbox, to predict spectrally resolvable FP palettes and decode and re-color hyperspectral images. Using this approach, we demonstrate live-cell imaging of 12 uniquely labeled clones. Our work offers a scalable platform for selecting optimal FP palettes for multiplex experiments, with broad utility across diverse biological systems and hyperspectral imaging techniques.