Rational design of boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY)-based photobleaching-resistant fluorophores applicable to a protein dynamics study.

We studied the photobleaching of a library of boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) derivatives with a range of electron densities, and found that the photobleaching rate is influenced by the electron-withdrawing capacity of the substituents. Electron-deficient BODIPYs generated less singlet oxygen, were less reactive to singlet oxygen, and were highly resistant to photobleaching. We confirmed the utility of one of these fluorophores, 2,6-diCO(2)R-BDP, for visualizing EGF receptor dynamics in cells expressing an SNAP-tagged EGF receptor.