Development of FRET-based dual-excitation ratiometric fluorescent pH probes and their photocaged derivatives.

Dual-excitation ratiometric fluorescent probes allow the measurement of fluorescence intensities at two excitation wavelengths, which should provide a built-in correction for environmental effects. However, most of the small-molecule dual-excitation ratiometric probes that have been reported thus far have shown rather limited separation between the excitation wavelengths (20-70 nm) and/or a very small molar absorption coefficient at one of the excitation wavelengths. These shortcomings can lead to cross-excitation and thus to errors in the measurement of fluorescence intensities and ratios. Herein, we report a FRET-based molecular strategy for the construction of small-molecule dual-excitation ratiometric probes in which the donor and acceptor excitation bands exhibit large separations between the excitation wavelengths and comparable excitation intensities, which is highly desirable for determining the fluorescence intensities and signal ratios with high accuracy. Based on this strategy, we created a coumarin-rhodamine FRET platform that was then employed to develop the first class of FRET-based dual-excitation ratiometric pH probes that have two well-resolved excitation bands (excitation separations>160 nm) and comparable excitation intensities. In addition, these pH probes may be considered as in a kind of "secured ratioing mode". As a further application of these pH probes, the dual-excitation ratiometric pH probes were transformed into the first examples of photocaged dual-excitation ratiometric pH probes to improve the spatiotemporal resolution. It is expected that the modular nature of our FRET-based molecular strategy should render it applicable to other small-molecule dual-dye energy-transfer systems based on diverse fluorescent dyes for the development of a wide range of dual-excitation ratiometric probes with outstanding spectral features, including large separations between the excitation wavelengths and comparable excitation intensities.