A synergistic strategy to develop photostable and bright dyes with long Stokes shift for super-resolution microscopy

Abstract The quality and application of super-resolution fluorescence imaging greatly lie in the properties of fluorescent probes. However, conventional fluorophores in a cellular environment often suffer from low brightness, poor photostability, and short Stokes shift (< 30 nm). Here we report a synergistic strategy to simultaneously improve such properties of regular fluorophores. Introduction of quinoxaline motif with fine-tuned electron density to conventional rhodamines generates new dyes with vibronic structure and inhibited twisted-intramolecular-charge-transfer (TICT) formation synchronously, thus increasing the brightness and photostability as well as Stokes shift. The new fluorophore BDQF-6 exhibits around twofold greater brightness (ε × Φ = 6.6 × 10 4 L·mol − 1 ·cm − 1 ) and Stokes shift (56 nm) than its parental fluorophore, Rhodamine B. Importantly, in Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) microscopy, BDQF-6 derived probe possesses a superior photostability and thus renders threefold more frames than carbopyronine- and JF608-based probes, known as photostable fluorophores for STED imaging. More BDQF-6 derivatives were developed next, allowing us to perform wash-free organelles (mitochondria and lysosome) staining and protein labeling with ultrahigh signal-to-noise ratios (up to 106 folds) in confocal and STED microscopy of live cells, or two-photon and 3D STED microscopy of fixed cells. Furthermore, the strategy was well generalized to different types of dyes (pyronin, rhodol, coumarin, and Boranil), offering a new class of bright and photostable fluorescent probes with long Stokes shift (up to 136 nm) for bioimaging and biosensing.