光激活荧光蛋白是指用特定光照射时, 其荧光特性发生显著改变的一类荧光蛋白。借助光激活荧光蛋白的这种特性,可以实现对活细胞、细胞器或胞内分子的时空标记和追踪。该文介绍了目前光激活荧光蛋白的性质, 并从多个方面对其应用进行了概括, 包括分子标记与动态分析、蛋白质相互作用、细胞器及细胞组分动态研究、细胞追踪以及在光激活定位显微镜中的应用等, 且对目前光激活荧光蛋白在植物分子细胞生物学中的应用进行了详细介绍。

Photoactivatable fluorescent proteins (PAFPs) undergo pronounced changes in fluorescent properties by irradiation with specific light. These changes enable the spatial and temporal optical labelling and tracking of living cells, organelles and intracellular molecules. Here we introduce the characteristics of known PAFPs and their potential applications from several aspects, including molecular labelling and dynamic analysis, protein-protein interaction, organelle and cellular compartment dynamics, cell tracking, and recent use in photoactivated localization microscopy. We also discuss the use of photoactivable fluorescent protein in plant molecular cell biology.