The objective of my PhD study was to develop and characterize new methods and sensors based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) for bioanalysis. Chapter 3 describes the use of FRET between donor fluorophores and acceptor labeled murine macrophage cells. FRET microscopy was used to determine whether the donor molecules truly permeate through the cell membrane or only adsorb to the cell surface. This method was found to be partially successful since the donor red tail fluorescence overlapped with the sensitized acceptor fluorescence and led to false reading of FRET. We found that is easier to monitor delivery of acceptor molecules into donor-labeled cells. Using donor labeled cells it was possible to determine whether the acceptor molecules were actually delivered into cells. However, a relatively high acceptor concentration in the hundreds of micromolar level was needed to obtain measurable FRET signals in the 3-D cellular system. The results underscored the need to reduce the dimensionality of FRET systems in order to increase the FRET efficiency between donor and acceptor molecules. Chapter 4 describes the development of FRET sensing lipobeads labeled with donors and their use to evaluate the interactions of acceptor molecules with the phospholipid membrane of FRET sensing lipobeads. The change in the dimensionality of the system in which FRET occurs, improved the sensitivity of our measurements by 3-folds compared to FRET measurements in solution. We concluded that a molecular recognition component had to be added to the sensing particles to further increase their selectivity and sensitivity. Chapter 5 describes the development of FRET trap sensing beads and their use for screening nonfluorescent carbohydrates and glycoproteins. The FRET sensing technique was based on binding between dextran molecules labeled with Texas Red (Dextran-TR) and polystyrene microparticles labeled with Fluorescein tagged Concanavalin A (FITC-ConA). It was found that carbohydrates and glycoproteins inhibit the binding between dextran-TR and FITC-ConA labeled particles. The inhibition effect was concentration dependent thus enabled screening carbohydrates and glycoproteins based on their inhibition potency. The dissertation critically evaluates the performance of FRET microscopy and FRET based sensors in delivery and screening applications.

Chez l’organisme modèle Caulobacter crescentus, de nombreux régulateurs sont impliqués dans le contrôle du cycle cellulaire. Dans ce travail, nous présentons la découverte de l’interaction fonctionnelle entre GcrA et la N6-adenosine méthyltransférase CcrM. La combinaison d’expériences de biochimie, de biophysique, d’immuno-précipitation de la chromatine et de génétique nous a permis de révéler que GcrA est une protéine dimérique qui se fixe à l’ADN, et qui montre une affinité préférentielle, à la fois in vitro et in vivo, pour les promoteurs qui ont été méthylés. Nous avons montré que le complexe GcrA/promoteur recrute l’ARN polymérase. Comme ce processus est également observée avec les orthologues de GcrA présents chez d’autres Alphaproteobacteria, nous avons conclu que GcrA est le membre d’une nouvelle classe de régulateurs transcriptionnels. Enfin, nous avons découvert que GcrA interagit également avec une protéine récemment caractérisée et appelée GipX. Une protéine essentielle, qui pourrait jouer un rôle dans la régulation de l’activité de GcrA et dans la biosynthèse de la paroi bactérienne. Enfin, concernant l’étude du phospho-relai responsable de l’activation du principal régulateur CtrA, nous décrivons également la structure protéique de ChpT ainsi que le développement d’un biosenseur capable de détecter les niveaux de phosphorylation in vivo. Ce biosenseur utilise le FRET et est basé sur la capacité des régulateurs de réponses à se dimériser lorsqu’ils sont phosphorylés. Ces résultats ouvrent la possibilité d’utiliser cette méthode pour l’étude de la phosphorylation des régulateurs de réponse dans d’autres modèles bactériens. / In model organism Caulobacter crescentus many regulators are involved in the control of cell cycle progression. In this thesis we present the discovery of the interaction between the cell cycle regulator GcrA and the N6-adenosine methyltransferase. Using a combination of ChIP-Seq biochemical and biophysical experimentation and genetics we showed that GcrA is a dimeric DNA-binding protein that targets promoters with CcrM methylation sites. We showed that the complex GcrA/promoter recruits the RNA polymerase. Since methylation-dependent DNA-binding is also observed with GcrA orthologs from other Alphaproteobacteria, we conclude that GcrA is a member of a new class of transcriptional regulators that function as molecular effectors of a methylation-dependent epigenetic switch that regulates gene expression. We discovered that GcrA is also able to interact with a newly characterized protein, named GcrA Interacting Protein X (GipX), that has an essential role in Caulobacter and that may play a role in the regulation of GcrA activity and cell wall metabolism. Regarding the phosphorelay that drives to the activation of the master regulator CtrA, the structure of ChpT, the factor together with CckA responsible for CtrA phosphorylation, was solved. A biosensor able to detect the phosphorylation level of CtrA in vivo is also described in this thesis. This sensor based on FRET exploits the ability of response regulators to dimerize upon phosphorylation. These results open the possibility to use this method to study the phosphorylation of response regulators in other bacterial systems.

Due to the biological importance of heme and its implication in various disease states, uncovering how it is transported throughout the cell is of vital importance. Some of the strongest in vivo tools present in the literature are FRET-based sensors using a number of chromophores that are optimized and expanded from GFP. In order to elucidate the movement of heme throughout the cell, GFP FRET -based heme sensors were designed, expressed, and purified to be further characterized in vitro. This series of heme sensors were expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to monitor the in vivo movement of heme. Different growth conditions were explored to monitor the effect of these changes to cytosolic heme availability. These heme sensors are now poised to address the movement of heme from the mitochondria to other targets in the cell under a variety of conditions. This will provide insight into heme trafficking pathways, as well as the role heme plays in neurodegenerative diseases and aging

L’implication et les rôles de la PKA et de la MAPK/ERK lors de la division cellulaire, ont fait l’objet de nombreuses études. Pourtant les profils spatio-temporels des activités de ces kinases au cours des différentes étapes du cycle et notamment lors de la mitose sont controversés et restent à éclaircir. Le but de ce travail a été la détermination de ces profils grâce à l’utilisation et au développement d’outils moléculaires basés sur des propriétés de la fluorescence, capables de rapporter l’activité kinase in vivo, qui sont appelés biosenseurs FRET. Nous avons mis en évidence que l’activité de PKA augmente lors de la mitose pour ensuite chuter rapidement lors de la cytokinèse dans les cellules HeLa. Lors de la métaphase et de l’anaphase, l'activité de PKA est particulièrement élevée à proximité des chromosomes et ce, indépendamment d’une relocalisation de ses sous-unités catalytiques. De plus, l’utilisation d’inhibiteur de PKA conduit à l’apparition de phénotypes mitotiques aberrants, indiquant le rôle essentiel de cette augmentation d’activité dans le maintien de l’intégrité du génome. Ces phénotypes sont similaires à ceux décrits pour des perturbations de l’activité de MAPK/ERK. Le développement d’un biosenseur FRET optimisé pour les mesures d’activité de MAPK/ERK nous a permis de déterminer que son activité globale ne varie pas lors de la mitose mais connait en revanche une diminution forte et très brève lors de la cytokinèse. L’inhibition de PKA induit une augmentation sensible de la phosphorylation de MAPK/ERK, ce qui pourrait suggérer ainsi un lien entre les activités de ces deux protéines dans la répartition correcte du matériel génétique lors de la mitose. / Even if the roles and contribution of PKA and MAPK/ERK in cell cycle have been the topic of several studies, the spatio-temporal profiles of their activities are still controversial and remain to be clarified. The aim of my PhD was to highlight those activity profiles during the cell cycle in HeLa cells, by using or developing new molecular tools, based on fluorescence properties that are able to report kinase activity in vivo and named FRET-based biosensors.The use of these biosensors allowed us to reveal that PKA activity increased at the onset of mitosis and stayed high until the completion of cytokinesis. During metaphase and anaphase, this activity was especially high in the close vicinity of the condensed chromosomes, independently of any concomitant relocalization of PKA catalytic sub-units within the cell. Moreover inhibition of PKA activity during mitosis lead to improper mitotic phenotype (i.e. : misalignment of the DNA on the spindle, precocious segregation of part of the chromosomes), pointing out the essential role of the activity increase in genetic stability. Those observed phenotypes are similar to those described upon experimental modifications of the MAPK/Erk activity level. By means of the development of a new improved MAPK/Erk activity biosensor, we showed that its global activity does not change during mitosis, but goes through a brief and strong decrease during cytokinesis. As the inhibition of PKA induces a noticeable increase of MAPK/Erk phosphorylation, those results could suggest a link between those two kinases activities in the correct distribution of the DNA to daughter cells during mitosis.

Cette thèse étudie l'utilisation de la microscopie FRET en décalage temporelle pour la détection de co-localisation des deux protéines membranaires E- et N-cadhérine. Ces protéines sont importantes pour les contacts cellule-cellule et jouent un rôle important dans la transition épithélio-mésenchymateuse (EMT), un processus clé dans la métastase du cancer. Dans EMT cellules perdent leurs marqueurs épithéliaux (par exemple E-cadhérine) et acquièrent des marqueurs mésenchymateuses (par exemple N-cadhérine), ce qui augmente leur motilité et le caractère invasif pour échapper à la tumeur primaire dans la circulation sanguine en tant que ce qu'on appelle des cellules tumorales circulantes (CTC). Ce manuscrit porte sur la détection des CTC qui ont subi une EMT partielle, montrant un phénotype hybride (épithélio-mésenchymateuse) et co-expriment E et N-cadhérine, par des études de co-localisation en utilisant le FRET sur une lignée modèle de cellules. FRET (Transfer d’énergie par résonance de type Förster) est un transfert d'énergie non-radiatif entre deux molécules qui sont en résonance et à proximité (environ 1-20 nm). Une co-localisation d’E- et N-cadhérine en clusters serait donc détectable par FRET. La coloration des cadhérines qui a été fait en utilisant des anticorps spécifiques marqués avec une donneur qui a un longue durée de vie de fluorescence, le complexe de terbium Lumi4-Tb (TbL4) de Lumiphore, Inc., et diverses accepteurs. La longue durée de vie du donneur et la longue durée de vie d’accepteur sensibilisé (FRET) pourraient être imagés dans une configuration de microscopie en décalage temporelle. L’imagerie en décalage temporelle présente plusieurs avantages par rapport à l'imagerie stationnaire en termes de suppression efficace du bruit de fond dans des échantillons biologiques. L'installation décrite dans ce manuscrit est basée sur l'utilisation d'une caméra CCD intensifiée, une source d'excitation laser pulsé en UV et un décalage temporel défini de quelques microsecondes entre l'excitation et l'acquisition d'image. L’imagerie de FRET en décalage temporelle a été utilisée pour étudier des différents échantillons biologiques (intracellulaire et située à la membrane). Bien que les deux marqueurs protéiques pourraient imager correctement sur les mêmes cellules, FRET entre E- et N-cadhérine ou E- et E-cadhérine ne pouvaient pas être détectés. Des expériences de contrôle avec des anticorps contre le même anticorps primaire ont révélé des signaux de FRET forts à cause de la reconnaissance des anticorps donneurs et accepteurs aux mêmes anticorps primaires. Ces résultats de FRET entre deux anticorps différents séparés par quelques nanomètres démontrent la faisabilité de mesurer des interactions protéine-protéine et la co-localisation sur des membranes à l'aide de l’imagerie de FRET en décalage temporelle en utilisant TbL4. Imagerie en décalage temporelle de quelques microsecondes est particulièrement intéressante pour l'enquête des interactions protéine-protéine dans des échantillons biologiques hautement autofluorescentes, tels que les tissus cancéreux. / This thesis investigates the use of time-gated FRET microscopy for detection of colocalization of two membrane proteins, E- and N-cadherin. These proteins are important for cell-cell contacts and have an important role in the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), a key process in cancer metastasis. In EMT cells lose their epithelial markers (such as E-cadherin) and gain mesenchymal markers (such as N-cadherin), increasing their motility and invasiveness, enabling escape from the primary tumor into the bloodstream as so called circulating tumor cells (CTCs). This manuscript focuses on the detection of CTCs that have undergone partial EMT, displaying a hybrid phenotype (epithelial-mesenchymal) and co-express E- and N-cadherin, by FRET co-localization studies on a model cell line. FRET (Förster resonance energy transfer) is a non-radiative energy transfer between two molecules that are in resonance and in close proximity (ca. 1-20 nm). A co-localization of E- and N-cadherin in clusters would therefore be detectable by FRET. The staining of the cadherins was done by using specific antibodies labelled with a long lifetime donor, the terbium complex Lumi4-Tb (TbL4) from Lumiphore, Inc., and various acceptors. The long lifetime donor and long lifetime sensitized acceptor emission (FRET) could be imaged in a time-gated microscopy setup. Time -gated imaging has several advantages compared to steady state imaging in terms of efficient background suppression in biological samples. The setup described in this manuscript is based on the use of an intensified CCD camera, a pulsed UV-laser excitation source, and a defined (µs) delay between excitation and image acquisition. In addition to the E- and N-cadherin FRET experiments the time-gated FRET imaging microscopy was used to investigate different biological samples (intracellular and membrane located). Although both protein markers could be successfully imaged on the same cells, FRET between E- and N-cadherin or E- and E-cadherin could not be detected. Control experiments with antibodies against the same primary antibody revealed strong time-gated FRET signals due to binding of both donor and acceptor antibodies to the same primary antibodies. The successful time-gated imaging of two different antibodies separated by a few nanometers demonstrates the feasibility of probing protein-protein interaction and co-localization at membranes using TbL4 based time-gated FRET imaging. Microsecond time-gated imaging is especially interesting for the investigation of protein-protein interactions in highly autofluorescent biological samples such as cancer tissues.

Dans les organismes multicellulaires, les cellules génèrent et subissent des forces mécaniques qui se propagent aux cellules voisines. Ces forces peuvent déterminer la forme des tissus et organes, et aussi être converties en signaux biochimiques. Dans un épithélium, les cellules forment un tissu en adhérant directement les unes aux autres grâce à des complexes d’adhérence, tels que les Jonctions Adhérentes. Ces Jonctions Adhérentes sont composées de protéines transmembranaires les E-cadhérines, dont la partie cytoplasmique est sous tension générée par le cytosquelette d’actomyosine par un lien assurée par la β-caténine. La β-caténine est aussi un cofacteur de transcription majeur qui régule l’activité de gènes impliqués dans la transition épithélio-mésenchymateuse une fois dans le noyau. L’accumulation nucléaire et l’activité transcriptionnelle de la β-caténine peuvent avoir lieu à la suite de stimulations mécaniques dans des situations physiologiques et pathologiques, et ont été proposées comme la conséquence d’une libération de la β-caténine des Jonctions Adhérentes suite à sa phosphorylation. Néanmoins, les preuves directes de ce phénomène et ses mécanismes manquent, et le rôle qu’y tient la tension des E-cadhérines n’est pas connu.Dans cette thèse, nous avons établi la relation entre la tension des E-cadhérines et la localisation nucléaire et l’activité de la β-caténine, prouvé l’existence d’une translocation de la membrane au noyau de la β-caténine, et caractérisé les mécanismes moléculaires sous-jacents dans des cellules en migration induite par un facteur de croissance ou par blessure sur un épithélium, deux conditions qui récapitulent au moins partiellement une transition épithélio-mésenchymateuse.Nous avons montré que l’accumulation nucléaire de la β-caténine est due à un départ substantiel de celle-ci de la membrane, spécifiquement dans les cellules en migration. Cette translocation a lieu en aval d’une voie de signalisation impliquant les kinases Src et FAK, et qui conduit à une relaxation de tension des E-cadhérines. Le mécanisme sous-jacent implique une réorganisation du cytosquelette d’actine, caractérisé par un enrichissement des fibres des stress ventrales, soutenant les protrusions, en phospho-myosine, au détriment du cortex d’actine des Jonctions Adhérentes. En revanche, les phosphorylations dans le complexe cadhérine/caténine ne sont pas requises. Ces résultats démontrent que les E-cadhérines ont un rôle de senseur de la mécanique intracellulaire, et que les adhésions focales sont impliquées dans l’activation de la voie de signalisation β-caténine / In multicellular organisms, cells generate and experience mechanical forces that propagate between and within cells. These forces may shape cells, tissues and organs, and also convert into biochemical signals. In a simple epithelium, cells form tissue sheets by directly adhering to one another through adhesion complexes, such as the Adherens Junctions. Adherens Junctions comprise transmembrane proteins E-cadherins, which are under actomyosin-generated tension via a link that contains β-catenin. β-catenin is also a major transcription cofactor that regulates gene activity associated with Epithelial-to-Mesenchyme Transition when translocated in the nucleus. β-catenin nuclear localization and transcriptional activity are mechanically inducible in a variety of healthy and disease models and were proposed to follow phosphorylation-induced -catenin release from E-cadherin. However, direct evidence for this translocation and these mechanisms are lacking, and whether E-cadherin tension is involved is unknown.In this thesis, we assess the relationship between E-cadherin tension and β-catenin nuclear localization and activity, determine the relevance of β-catenin shuttling between membrane and nucleus, and characterize the underlying molecular mechanisms in cells migrating in an at least partial EMT-like fashion upon hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) or wound stimulation. We showed that β-catenin nuclear activity follows a substantial release from the membrane that is specific to migrating cells. This translocation occurs downstream of the Src-FAK pathway, which targets E-cadherin tension relaxation. The underlying mechanisms sufficiently involve actomyosin remodeling, characterized by an enrichment of ventral stress fibers that capture phosphomyosin at the expense of the cortex at Adherens Junctions. In contrast, phosphorylations of the cadherin/catenin complex are not substantially required. These data demonstrate that E-cadherin acts as a sensor of intracellular mechanics in a crosstalk with cell-substrate adhesions that targets β-catenin signaling

No description available.

Master of Science / Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology / Kyeong-Ok Chang / Positive sense RNA viruses include diverse groups of viruses that cause a wide variety of diseases in humans and animals. Most of these viruses encode proteases that cleave the viral polyprotein into intermediate or mature functional proteins during virus replication. As these proteases play a critical role in virus replication, they represent an attractive target for the development of antiviral drugs. In this study, the main goal was to establish assay systems and characterize the enzymatic activity of related proteases from Norwalk virus (NV), poliovirus, and transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV). These proteases share several common characteristics including a typical chymotrypsin-like fold, a Cys residue as a nucleophile in the catalytic triad (or dyad) composed of Cys, His and Glu (or Asp) residues, and a preference for a Glu or Gln residue at the P1 position on the substrate. We cloned and expressed proteases from these viruses and characterized their enzymatic activities using a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) assay using a specific FRET substrate corresponding to each viral protease. First, assay conditions of the FRET assay was optimized for each virus protease. Second, inhibition profiles of each virus protein were investigated using five commercially available standard protease inhibitors (chymostatin, leupeptin, antipain, TPCK, and TLCK). The inhibition studies showed that TPCK inhibited NV, poliovirus, and TGEV proteases with varying strength, and chymostatin inhibited only NV protease. All other inhibitors had little effects on the virus proteases. The established FRET assays should facilitate screening potential antivirals.

The transmembrane protein prestin forms an integral part of the mammalian sense of hearing by providing the driving force for the electromotility of the outer hair cell, a specialized cell that resides within the cochlea. This provides the cochlea with an ability to amplify mechanical vibrations, allowing for a high degree of sensitivity and selectivity in auditory transduction. The phenomenon, driven by changes in the transmembrane potential, is thought to be the result of conformational changes in self-associating prestin oligomers. We have previously utilized Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET), by both sensitized emission and acceptor photobleach methods, to detect prestin self -association. While these methods can qualitatively confirm prestin-prestin association, determining nanoscale changes in prestin organization requires greater accuracy than either technique provides. In this thesis, a FRET methodology based on fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM), detected by time correlated single photon counting (TCSPC), is implemented and utilized to quantitatively measure conformational changes within prestin-prestin oligomers in response to voltage stimulus.

The unique spectroscopic properties of quantum dots (QDs) are of interest for application in intracellular studies of gene expression. QDs derivatized with single-stranded probe oligonucleotides were used to detect complementary target sequences via hybridization and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). As nucleic acid targets are not labeled within cells, a displacement assay for nucleic acid detection featuring QDs as FRET donors was developed. QDs conjugated with oligonucleotide probes and then pre-hybridized with labeled target yielded efficient FRET in vitro. Studies in vitro confirmed that displacement kinetics of pre-hybridized target was a function of the stability of the initial hybridized complex. Displacement was observed as reduction in FRET intensity coupled with regeneration of QD fluorescence. By engineering the sequence of the labeled target, faster displacement was possible. The QDprobe+target system was successfully delivered into cells via transfection. Although QDs with their cargo remained sequestered in endosomal vesicles, fluorescent properties were retained.