Imaging Fluorescence Blinking of a Mitochondrial Localization Probe: Cellular Localization Probes Turned into Multifunctional Sensors

Mitochondrial membranes and their microenviron-ments directly influence and reflect cellular metabolic states but aredifficult to probe on site in live cells. Here, we demonstrate astrategy, showing how the widely used mitochondrial membranelocalizationfluorophore 10-nonyl acridine orange (NAO) can betransformed into a multifunctional probe of membrane micro-environments by monitoring its blinking kinetics. By transient state(TRAST) studies of NAO in small unilamellar vesicles (SUVs),together with computational simulations, we found that NAOexhibits prominent reversible singlet-triplet state transitions andcan act as a light-induced Lewis acid forming a red-emissivedoublet radical. The resulting blinking kinetics are highlyenvironment-sensitive, specifically reflecting local membrane oxy-gen concentrations, redox conditions, membrane charge,fluidity, and lipid compositions. Here, not only cardiolipin concentrationbut also the cardiolipin acyl chain composition was found to strongly influence the NAO blinking kinetics. The blinking kinetics alsoreflect hydroxyl ion-dependent transitions to and from thefluorophore doublet radical, closely coupled to the proton-transfer eventsin the membranes, local pH, and two- and three-dimensional buffering properties on and above the membranes. Following the SUVstudies, we show by TRAST imaging that thefluorescence blinking properties of NAO can be imaged in live cells in a spatiallyresolved manner. Generally, the demonstrated blinking imaging strategy can transform existingfluorophore markers intomultiparametric sensors reflecting conditions of large biological relevance, which are difficult to retrieve by other means. This opensadditional possibilities for fundamental membrane studies in lipid vesicles and live cells