Mitochondrial nucleoids or mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) encodes for a variety of enzymes and proteins that are essential for oxidative phosphorylation, mitochondrial fussion/fission and apoptotic processes. However, visulization of mtDNA dynamics in response to external stumili has not yet been achieved. Herein, we developed a fluorescent probe, named BDP, that is capable of specifically bind to mtDNA in vitro and in living cells, without interfering mitochondrial functions. Its large Stokes-Shift and red-emission tail render its suitability for stimulated emission depletion (STED) visulization of mtDNA dynamics in living cells. We sucessfully demonstrated for the first time how apoptotic induced anti-cancer drug could impact on mitochondrial nucleoids, and the morphology evolution of mtDNA from segmentation to dispersion was recorded, in a single mitochondria at nanoscale.

线粒体类核或线粒体 DNA (mtDNA) 编码对氧化磷酸化、线粒体融合/裂变和凋亡过程至关重要的各种酶和蛋白质。然而，尚未实现响应外部刺激的 mtDNA 动力学的可视化。在此，我们开发了一种名为 BDP 的荧光探针，它能够在体外特异性结合 mtDNA在活细胞中，不干扰线粒体功能。它的大斯托克斯位移和红色发射尾使其适用于活细胞中 mtDNA 动力学的受激发射损耗 (STED) 可视化。我们首次成功地证明了凋亡诱导的抗癌药物如何影响线粒体类核，并在纳米级的单个线粒体中记录了 mtDNA 从分割到分散的形态演变。