Protocol for using fluorescent sensors targeted to endogenous proteins (FluoSTEPs) to measure microdomain-specific signaling events

Abstract

Fluorescence-based sensors are powerful molecular tools for studying the spatiotemporal regulation of cell signaling, which is often organized into discrete microdomains. Here, we present a protocol for using fluorescent sensors targeted to endogenous proteins (FluoSTEPs), a new class of fluorescent sensors in which the functional probe is exclusively reconstituted at an endogenously expressed protein of interest associated with a specific microdomain. FluoSTEPs allow microdomain-specific signaling activities to be measured with high selectivity without perturbing the native stoichiometry of signaling components. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Zhang et al. (2020) and Tenner et al. (2021).

Keywords: Cell-based Assays; Microscopy; Molecular Biology; Molecular/Chemical Probes; Signal Transduction.