In the field of synthetic biology, fluorescent proteins are common component tools. However, obtaining high signal-to-noise-ratio images from samples with low-level expression requires strong excitation light, which often causes severe photobleaching. Similarly, obtaining a high spatiotemporal resolution to study the fast dynamics of fine subcellular structures requires continuous acquisition of images on a time scale from seconds to minutes, which inevitably leads to noticeable FP photobleaching. Highly photostable FPs are, therefore, needed to enable fast and long super-resolution imaging.
Recently, the researchers modified the wild-type green fluorescent protein GFP found in the jellyfish Cytaeis uchidae to obtain a highly photostable and bright green fluorescent protein StayGold (GenBank accession number: LC601652).StayGold is over one order of magnitude more photostable than any currently available fluorescent protein and has a cellular brightness similar to mNeonGreen. StayGold will substantially reduce the limitations imposed by photobleaching, especially in live cell or volumetric imaging.
The current fluorescent protein, StayGold, exists as a dimer, and the properties of the dimer may limit the use of this fluorescent protein for membrane protein labeling and protein fusion. A monomeric version of StayGold (mStayGold) is under development. The mStayGold will then enable the visualization and quantification of tagged proteins at low copy number expressed via genome editing techniques; it will also enable the tracking of such proteins at the single-molecule level in cells over extended periods of time.

Source：www.nature.com/articles/s41587-022-01278-2