{"id":93584,"date":"2025-09-29T23:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T23:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/93584\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T23:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T23:45:09","slug":"u-biochemists-create-first-single-dyed-ratiometric-biosensor-for-glycine-imaging-theu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/93584\/","title":{"rendered":"U biochemists create first single-dyed ratiometric biosensor for glycine imaging \u2013 @theU"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reposted from the College of Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The amino acid glycine is an important neurotransmitter that regulates memory, reflex and brain development, and it may also be a biomarker for bacterial virulence. Of the 20 standard amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, glycine is the simplest, the only one lacking a side chain extending from its backbone. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ming Hammond<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, despite these important roles of glycine, there haven\u2019t been any tools that can image glycine both inside and outside of living cells,\u201d University of Utah chemistry professor Ming Hammond<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

Using engineered strands of RNA called aptamers, her lab created such a tool, unveiled in a study published earlier this month. Through persistent work, Hammond\u2019s team created a new aptamer dubbed \u201cGolden Broccoli\u201d that is used alongside the previously existing \u201cRed Broccoli\u201d aptamer to bind with a single dye. The two aptamers fluoresce yellow and red, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe yellow signal indicates how much of the RNA sensor is in the cell,\u201d said lead author Madeline Bodin, a doctoral student in the Hammond lab. \u201cThe red signal indicates how much glycine is present. You can use the ratio between these signals for absolute quantitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

This research is expected to help advance imaging tools, according to the journal Nucleic Acids Research, whose reviewers selected Bodin\u2019s paper as a Breakthrough Article, an honor reserved for about 20 articles a year.<\/p>\n

The Hammond Lab<\/a> seeks to engineer nucleic acids as programmable tools for molecular imaging and gene control, and to illuminate the chemistry and biology of cyclic dinucleotides as signaling molecules in bacteria and mammalian cells.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Madeline Bodin<\/p>\n

The new study builds on ratiometric fluorescence<\/a>, a method of measurement that uses the ratio of two signals to determine a value. Instead of measuring the absolute intensity of a fluorescent signal, a ratiometric approach measures two signals at different wavelengths.\u00a0Their ratio, rather than their raw intensity, is then used to quantify the signal of interest.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how ratiometry applies in Bodin and Hammond\u2019s \u201cBroccoli\u201d experiments on glycine.<\/p>\n

When the aptamers light up, yellow light and red light are emitted mixed together. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe two signals have some overlap. Luckily, it turns out you can unmix these signals using mathematical formulas,\u201d Hammond said. The key part now is that glycine levels can be read accurately in real time within living cells, without breaking open the cells and killing them in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny questions we have about how the amount of glycine in the cell changes during different cellular processes or where glycine is located in the cell at different times now can be answered,\u201d Bodin added.<\/p>\n

The single-dye approach avoids problems caused by different dyes having different cell permeabilities, solubilities or dependencies, making measurements more consistent across experiments.<\/p>\n

This new tool can help test and improve fundamental models of cell signaling and behavior. One application for more accurate reading of glycine levels is in the human brain, specifically with a glial cell called an astrocyte. <\/p>\n

Astrocytes are abundant within the central nervous system, responsible for regulating neuronal activity. They have a sheath-like role in protecting the brain from injury.\u00a0Recent studies\u00a0have hypothesized that astrocytes might provide neurotransmitters to the neurons themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to use the biosensor to determine if astrocytes release glycine in a way that could potentially affect neuronal signaling,\u201d Bodin said. Imaging of glycine in the brain is currently not possible. But Bodin and Hammond are optimistic that the necessary technological advancements will eventually emerge to achieve such imaging.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always thinking of how there\u2019s more to be done,\u201d Bodin said. \u201cAlthough this was a breakthrough, I hope that in the future, other people can develop even brighter single-dye ratiometric aptamers. And in that sense, there\u2019s still more work to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hope is that Golden Broccoli will lead to advancements that can reveal the big things that the simple little glycine molecule is up to.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0paper<\/a>, \u201cVisualizing intracellular glycine with two-dye and single-dye ratiometric RNA-based sensors,\u201d was published Sept. 11 in the journal Nucleic Acids Research. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.<\/p>\n

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