STED-FLCS: An Advanced Tool to Reveal Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity of Molecular Membrane Dynamics

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Giuseppe Vicidomini - , Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer Institute) (Author)
  • Haisen Ta - , Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer Institute) (Author)
  • Alf Honigmann - , Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer Institute), Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Author)
  • Veronika Mueller - , Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer Institute) (Author)
  • Mathias P. Clausen - , University of Oxford, University of Southern Denmark (Author)
  • Dominic Waithe - , University of Oxford (Author)
  • Silvia Galiani - , University of Oxford (Author)
  • Erdinc Sezgin - , University of Oxford (Author)
  • Alberto Diaspro - , Italian Institute of Technology (Author)
  • Stefan W. Hell - , Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer Institute) (Author)
  • Christian Eggeling - , Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer Institute), University of Oxford (Author)

Abstract

Heterogeneous diffusion dynamics of molecules play an important role in many cellular signaling events, such as of lipids in plasma membrane bioactivity. However, these dynamics can often only be visualized by single-molecule and super-resolution optical microscopy techniques. Using fluorescence lifetime correlation spectroscopy (FLCS, an extension of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, FCS) on a super-resolution stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscope, we here extend previous observations of nanoscale lipid dynamics in the plasma membrane of living mammalian cells. STED-FLCS allows an improved determination of spatiotemporal heterogeneity in molecular diffusion and interaction dynamics via a novel gated detection scheme, as demonstrated by a comparison between STED-FLCS and previous conventional STED-FCS recordings on fluorescent phosphoglycerolipid and sphingolipid analogues in the plasma membrane of live mammalian cells. The STED-FLCS data indicate that biophysical and biochemical parameters such as the affinity for molecular complexes strongly change over space and time within a few seconds. Drug treatment for cholesterol depletion or actin cytoskeleton depolymerization not only results in the already previously observed decreased affinity for molecular interactions but also in a slight reduction of the spatiotemporal heterogeneity. STED-FLCS specifically demonstrates a significant improvement over previous gated STED-FCS experiments and with its improved spatial and temporal resolution is a novel tool for investigating how heterogeneities of the cellular plasma membrane may regulate biofunctionality.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5912-5918
Number of pages7
JournalNano letters
Volume15
Issue number9
Publication statusPublished - 9 Sept 2015
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

External IDs

PubMed 26235350
ORCID /0000-0003-0475-3790/work/161889551

Keywords

Keywords

  • fluorescence-correlation spectroscopy, stimulated-emission-depletion microscopy, Super-resolved microscopy, time-correlated single-photon counting, time-resolved