PKmito Orange (also known as PKMO) is a bright, photostable, non-phototoxic mitochondrial probe based on the PKmito™ dyes developed in the lab of Zhixing Chen at Peking University. PKmito Orange labels mitochondria in live cells with very high specificity. The unique and unmatched feature of PKmito Orange is its extremely low phototoxicity, due to the presence of the intramolecular triplet quencher cyclooctatetraene (COT) group. It allows to perform long term imaging of mitochondria without damaging them. PKmito Orange accumulates in the mitochondrial inner membrane (IM). It is highly suited to image mitochonridal cristae structure and dynamics by STED superresolution microscopy using a 775 nm depletion line. PKmito Orange does not require any genetic manipulation, transfection or overexpression of fluorescent proteins. PKmito Orange enables multicolor imaging with SPY505, SPY650, SPY700, SiR or GFP. It can be used for widefield, confocal, SIM or STED imaging in living cells and tissue.
