Visualizing Low-Abundance Proteins and Post-Translational Modifications in Living Drosophila Embryos via Fluorescent Antibody Injection

Summary

This protocol describes the customized antibody-based fluorescence labeling and injection into early Drosophila embryos to enable live imaging of low-abundance proteins or post-translational modifications that are challenging to detect using traditional GFP/mCherry-tag approaches.

Abstract

Visualization of proteins in living cells using GFP (Green Fluorescent Protein) and other fluorescent tags has greatly improved understanding of protein localization, dynamics, and function. Compared to immunofluorescence, live imaging more accurately reflects protein localization without potential artifacts arising from tissue fixation. Importantly, live imaging enables quantitative and temporal characterization of protein levels and localization, crucial for understanding dynamic biological processes such as cell movement or division. However, a major limitation of fluorescent tagging approaches is the need for sufficiently high protein expression levels to achieve successful visualization. Consequently, many endogenously tagged fluorescent proteins with relatively low expression levels cannot be detected. On the other hand, ectopic expression using viral promoters can sometimes lead to protein mislocalization or functional alterations in physiological contexts. To address these limitations, an approach is presented that utilizes highly sensitive antibody-mediated protein detection in living embryos, essentially performing immunofluorescence without the need for tissue fixation. As proof of principle, endogenously GFP-tagged Notch receptor that is barely detectable in living embryos can be successfully visualized after antibody injection. Furthermore, this approach was adapted to visualize post-translational modifications (PTMs) in living embryos, allowing the detection of temporal changes in tyrosine phosphorylation patterns during early embryogenesis and revealing a novel subpopulation of phosphotyrosine (p-Tyr) underneath apical membranes. This approach can be modified to accommodate other protein-specific, tag-specific, or PTM-specific antibodies and should be compatible with other injection-amenable model organisms or cell lines. This protocol opens new possibilities for live imaging of low-abundance proteins or PTMs that were previously challenging to detect using traditional fluorescent tagging methods.

Introduction

Immunofluorescence is a cornerstone technique of modern cell biology originally developed by Albert Coons, which enables the detection of molecules at their native cellular compartments and characterization of the molecular compositions of subcellular organelles or machineries¹. Coupled with genetic manipulations, immunofluorescence helps establish the now well-accepted concept that protein localization is essential for its function². Aside from specific primary antibodies and bright fluorescent dyes, the success of this technique relies on a preliminary process named fixation and permeabilization, which preserves cellul....

Protocol

The experiments were conducted in accordance with the guidelines and approval of the School of Life Sciences, SUSTech University. The organism used is Drosophila melanogaster, and the genotypes are Notch-Knockin-GFP (Chromosome X) and Sqh-sqh-GFP (Chromosome II), generously provided by the labs of Dr. Francois Schweisguth (Institute Pasteur) and Dr. Jennifer Zallen (Sloan Kettering Institute), respectively. While this protocol mainly focuses on aspects of antibody labeling and live imaging, please refer to publi.......

Discussion

This presented procedure outlines the specialized method of fluorescence labeling with custom antibodies and subsequent injection into early-stage Drosophila embryos. This technique facilitates real-time visualization of proteins or post-translational modifications that exist in low quantities and are typically difficult to observe through conventional GFP/mCherry tagging methods.

Caution should be exercised when extending this method to make quantitative comparisons between wild-type.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Agarose	Sangon Biotech	A620014
Alexa Fluor 594 Antibody Labeling Kit	Invitrogen	A20185	Purification column from step 1.6 is included in this kit
Biological Microscope	SOPTOP	EX20	Eyepiece lens: PL 10X/20. Objective lens: 10x/0.25
Bleach	Clorox®
Borosilicate Glass Capillaries	World Precision Instruments	TW100F-4
Centrifuge	Eppendorf	5245
Cell Strainer	FALCON	352350
Desiccation chamber	LOCK&LOCK	HSM8200	320ml
Dissecting Microscope	Mshot	MZ62	Eyepiece lens: WF10X/22mm.
Double-sided Tape	Scotch	665
Fine Super Tweezer	VETUS	ST-14
Fisherbrand™ Cover Glasses: Rectangles	Fisherbrand	12-545F
Fisherbrand™ Superfrost™ Plus Microscope Slides	Fisherbrand	12-550-15
Forcep	VETUS	33A-SA
Halocarbon oil 27	Sigma-Aldrich	H8773-100ML
Halocarbon oil 700	Sigma-Aldrich	H8898-100ML
Heptane	Sigma-Aldrich	H2198-1L	Heptane glue is made of double-sided tape immersed in heptane
Dehydration reagent	TOKAI	1-7315-01	Fill to 90% volume of the dessication chamber
Manual Micromanipulator	World Precision Instruments	M3301R
Micropipette puller	World Precision Instruments	PUL-1000	Procedure: step 1, Heat: 290, Force:300, Distance:1.00, Delay:50. Step 2, Heat: 290, Force:300, Distance:2.21, Delay:50
Pneumatic picopump	World Precision Instruments	PV 830	Eject: 20 psi;  Range: 100ms; Duration: timed
PY20	Santa Cruz	SC-508
Square petri dishes	Biosharp	BS-100-SD
GFP nanobody	Chromotek	gt