Appendix 1—figure 3. In cellulo sensor characterization.
Intracellular labeling efficiencies. (a) Representative in-gel fluorescence detection of intracellular and in vitro (control) sensor protein labeling. The sensor protein is labeled intracellularly (U2OS cells) with CP-TMR-SMX, CP-TMR(6) or SiR-Halo (samples 1–4) with or without the presence of the efflux pump inhibitor verapamil (10 µM), overnight. The cells were washed and lysed with an excess BG-Alexa(488) and SiR-Halo or Halo-TMR to quantify the unlabeled fraction of SNAP-tag and Halo-tag. As control the purified sensor was labeled in vitro with CP-TMR-SMX/CP-TMR(6)/BG-Alexa(488) and SiR-Halo (samples 5–7). For the quantification of TMR or SiR labeling, the ratio of Alexa(488)/SiR and TMR/SiR of the intracellular samples is calculated relative to the in vitro samples. The results of the labeling efficiency and the description of the samples run on the SDS-PAGE gel can be found in Table b. (c) Comparison of the endogenous SPR level of different cell lines by Western Blot. Western blot of SPR (28 kDa) and β-tubulin (50 kDa) as loading control with different cell lysates revealed by ECL. For each cell lysates, 20 µg total protein were loaded in each well. (d) Representation of the relative expression level of SPR in the different cell lines determined as integrated band intensity normalized to β-tubulin integrated intensity using the displayed blot. (e) The sensor dynamic range is maintained in lysate or in cells. The purified NADP-Snifit is added to a freshly prepared U2OS lysate (0.5 mg/mL protein) to a concentration of 50 nM. The measured TMR/SiR ratio of 1.6 corresponds to a NADPH/NADP+ ratio of 11 in the whole-cell lysate (black line). The sensor was fully open by adding a saturating concentration of free ligand (2.5 mM sulfapyridine) and displays a TMR/SiR ratio of 4.5 (red line). To obtain the fully closed sensor in lysate, 10 mM NADP+ was spiked to the lysate, resulting in a TMR/SiR ratio of 0.5 (blue line). A similar FRET ratio change can be observed for closed sensor in buffer. (f) Semi-stable U2OS cells expressing the nuclear localized NADP-Snifit were used to performed an intracellular sensor calibration. The cells plated on a 12-well plate poly-L-lysine coated coverslip were imaged in HBSS with a widefield microscope. After 2 min, 10 mM NADP+ and 0.001% (w/w) digitonin prepared in HBSS was added to reach the sensor closed state. At 17 min, sulfapyridine was added to a saturating concentration (2 mM) to reach the sensor open state. The dynamic range measured with this widefield microscope was approximately of 8-fold similarly to lysate and buffer measurements.