Data Storage Based on Photochromic and Photoconvertible Fluorescent Proteins

The recent discovery of photoconvertible and photoswitchable fluorescentproteins (PCFPs and RSFPs, respectively) that can undergo photoinduced changes of their absorption/emission spectra opened new research possibilities in subdiffraction microscopy and optical datastorage. Here we demonstrate the proof-of-principle for read only and rewritable datastorage both in 2D and 3D, using PCFPs and RSFPs. The irreversible burning of information was achieved by photoconverting from green to red defined areas in a layer of the PCFP Kaede. Data were also written and erased several times in layers of the photochromicfluorescentprotein Dronpa. Using IrisFP, which combines the properties of PCFPs and RSFPs, we performed the first encoding of data in four colours using only one type of fluorescentprotein. Finally, three-dimensional optical datastorage was demonstrated using three mutants of EosFP (d1EosFP, mEosFP and IrisFP) in their crystalline form. Two-photon excitation allowed the precise addressing of regions of interest (ROIs) within the three-dimensional crystalline matrix without excitation of out-of-focus optical planes. Hence, this contribution highlights several datastorage schemes based on the remarkable properties of PCFPs/RSFPs.