Issue 32, 2024

A small-molecule probe to decipher stress-induced ER microenvironments and ER-Golgi communication

Abstract

Cellular stress is a crucial factor in regulating and maintaining both organismal and microenvironmental homeostasis. It induces a response that also affects the micropolarity of specific cellular compartments, which is essential for early disease diagnosis. In this contribution, we present a quantitative study of micropolarity changes inside the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) during the G1/S and G2/M phases, using a biocompatible small-molecule fluorophore called ER-Oct. This probe is selectively driven to the ER by its hydrophobicity, and it has the fastest diffusion properties among a series of analogous probes. We found that induced ER stress caused cell cycle arrests leading to an increase in ER micropolarity which is well supported by lambda scanning experiments and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) as well. ER-Oct is a versatile staining agent that could effectively stain the ER in various living/fixed mammalian cells, isolated ER, Caenorhabditis elegans, and mice tissues. Furthermore, we used this probe to visualize a well-known biological event, ER to Golgi transport, by live-cell fluorescence microscopy. Our exhaustive investigation of micropolarity using ER-staining dye provides a new way to study ER stress, which could provide a deeper understanding of proteostasis in model systems and even in fixed patient samples.

Graphical abstract: A small-molecule probe to decipher stress-induced ER microenvironments and ER-Golgi communication

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 Mär 2024
Accepted
21 Mai 2024
First published
22 Mai 2024

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2024,12, 7848-7857

A small-molecule probe to decipher stress-induced ER microenvironments and ER-Golgi communication

T. Dutta, B. Chakraborty, A. Nigam, S. Minocha and A. L. Koner, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2024, 12, 7848 DOI: 10.1039/D4TB00572D

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements