Khmelinskii A, Knop M
Methods Mol Biol. 2014;1174:195-210
Yeast/Methods
Fluorescent timers (FTs) are fluorescent proteins that change color with time. FTs can be used as tags to follow protein dynamics in living cells. Recently we described a novel class of FTs called tandem fluorescent protein timers (tFTs). Each tFT is a tandem fusion of two different conventional fluorescent proteins having distinct kinetics of fluorophore maturation. tFTs suitable for studying protein dynamics on different scales can be generated from a broad range of commonly used fluorescent proteins. Here we describe how to establish new tFTs and consider potential pitfalls. We detail a protocol for quantitative fluorescence microscopy imaging and analysis of intracellular protein dynamics with tFTs in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.