Carbazole-based fluorescent probe with a Large Stokes Shift for three-dimensional dynamic ultra-structures to monitor mitochondria in living cells

In the past few years, super-resolution microscopy techniques have already allowed imaging of biological structures at nanometer scale resolution. Nevertheless, due to the strict requirements of super-resolution optical conditions, fluorescent probes targeting specific mitochondrial structures, such as cristae, are still lacking, which constitutes a major challenge in studying mitochondrial biology. In this paper, we rationally constructed a pyridine-carbazole-based fluorescent probe that targets mitochondria with high specificity without compro-mising fluorescence under live, fixation and oxidative phosphorylation condition. In addition, its excellent op-tical properties (Large Stokes Shift, mitochondria-specific targeting under different conditions) allowed to monitor mitochondrial morphological changes in living cells using SIM super-resolution nanoscopy.