Chemical tweaking of a non-fluorescent GFP chromophore to a highly fluorescent coumarinic fluorophore: application towards photo-uncaging and stem cell imaging
This paper evaluates a series of photolabile protecting groups with built-in fluorescencereporting. They rely on readily available o-acetoxyphenyl methyloxazolones as activated precursors. Alcohol substrates are easily caged. The resulting photoactivable esters exhibit large one- and two-photon uncaging cross sections. The alcohol substrates are quantitatively released in a 1:1 molar ratio with a