Fluorescent Organelle Markers for Plant Cell Biology

When using these markers, please reference our Plant Journal paper:

B.K. Nelson, X. Cai, A. Nebenführ (2007)
A multi-color set of in vivo organelle markers for colocalization studies in Arabidopsis and other plants
Plant Journal 51:1126-1136. [abstract] [pdf, 800 kB]

Targeted Organelles:

• ER
• Golgi
• tonoplast
• plasma membrane
• peroxisomes
• mitochondria
• plastids

Available Constructs:

• fluorescent proteins: GFP, CFP, YFP, mCherry
• promoters: d35S
• binary plasmids: pBIN (kanamycin resistance), pFGC (glufosinate resistance)
• all plasmids are available through the Arabidopsis stock centers
• Search TAIR for all binary plasmid constructs

Available Plant Lines:

• Arabidopsis thaliana (kanamycin selection) [only CFP,GFP,YFP; not plasma membrane]
• all lines are available through the Arabidopsis stock centers
• Search TAIR for all plant lines

Naming Scheme:

• <organelle> hyphen <color> <selection>
• organelles are ER, G (Golgi), VAC (tonoplast), PM, PX (peroxisomes), MT (mitochondria), PT (plastids)
• colors are C (cyan = CFP), G (green = GFP), Y (yellow-green = YFP), R (red = mCherry)
• selection is either K (kanamycin), or B (basta = glufosinate)
• examples:
  • px-rb is the red peroxisome marker for basta (= glufosinate) selection
  • vac-ck is the cyan tonoplast marker for kanamycin selection
  • etc.

Plasmid Info:

• maps of the base plasmids can be found here for pBIN20 and pFGC19.
• maps and sequences of the individual organelle marker plasmids are linked in the following table.
  • for a map click on the plasmid name
  • for the full sequence in Genbank format click on "seq"
  • to download the files "option-click" (on the Mac) or right-click (on the PC)
  • some of the files are still under construction; thanks for your patience
  • if you encounter problems (missing links, broken files) please contact us

	kanamycin selection (pBIN)				basta selection (pFGC)
organelle	cyan	green	yellow	red	cyan	green	yellow	red
ER	ER-ck seq	ER-gk seq	ER-yk seq	ER-rk seq	ER-cb seq	ER-gb seq	ER-yb seq	ER-rb seq
Golgi	G-ck seq	G-gk seq	G-yk seq	G-rk seq	G-cb seq	G-gb seq	G-yb seq	G-rb seq
tonoplast	vac-ck seq	vac-gk seq	vac-yk seq	vac-rk seq	vac-cb seq	vac-gb seq	vac-yb seq	vac-rb seq
plasma membrane	pm-ck seq	pm-gk seq	pm-yk seq	pm-rk seq	pm-cb seq	pm-gb seq	pm-yb seq	pm-rb seq
peroxisomes	px-ck seq	px-gk seq	px-yk seq	px-rk seq	px-cb seq	px-gb seq	px-yb seq	px-rb seq
mitochondria	mt-ck seq	mt-gk seq	mt-yk seq	mt-rk seq	mt-cb seq	mt-gb seq	mt-yb seq	mt-rb seq
plastids	pt-ck seq	pt-gk seq	pt-yk seq	pt-rk seq	pt-cb seq	pt-gb seq	pt-yb seq	pt-rb seq

Fluorescent Protein Info:

• Excitation spectra
• Emission spectra
• All FPs have significant spectral overlap with other FPs!
• Make sure you use appropriate filter sets and run controls to check for cross talk.
• "Safe" combinations for co-localization are usually CFP & YFP or GFP & mCherry.
• More information on a wide variety of fluorescent proteins can be found at the Thorn lab and at the Nonet lab.