Metabolite sensors

Genetically encoded fluorescent sensors with high spatiotemporal resolution have been developed to sense various intracellular metabolites. As genetically encoded proteins, these sensors can be easily introduced into living cells by DNA transfection or targeted to different subcellular compartments by tagging with organelle-specifc signal peptides. In addition, these sensors could also be used to establish transgenetic organisms and applied in in vivo research. These sensors derived from fluorescent proteins (FP) provide high sensitivity and great versatility while minimally perturbing the cells under investigation, and are leading a revolution for cell biology research.