Imaging individual RNA molecules within living cells is key to understanding fundamental cellular processes such as gene expression, splicing, transport, translation and decay. Perturbation of these processes has been linked to numerous human diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. RNA Mango is non-toxic to cells, has bright fluorescence, and is compatible with live and fixed cell imaging. Stably folding Mango aptamer arrays have been developed and their ability to image both coding and non-coding RNAs at single-molecule resolution without affecting their localization patterns (REF). Thanks to the rapid exchange of photobleached fluorophores, Mango II arrays enable extended imaging times, which in turn benefits super-resolution techniques such as Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM). In addition, our Mango II arrays are readily compatible with immunostaining, RNA-FISH, and orthogonal labelling using MS2-arrays. Our Mango arrays accurate report on RNA transcription, nuclear export and subcellular localization. We are currently exploiting this new technology to investigate several aspects of RNA metabolism, gene expression and chromatin structure in mammalian cells.
