About the Authors

Xiaokun Shu

rtsien@ucsd.edu (RYT); xiaokun.shu@ucsf.edu (XS)

Current address: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America

Affiliations Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America, Department of Pharmacology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America

Varda Lev-Ram

Affiliation Department of Pharmacology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America

Thomas J. Deerinck

Affiliation National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, Center for Research on Biological Systems, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America

Yingchuan Qi

Affiliations Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America, Division of Biological Science, Section of Neurobiology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America

Ericka B. Ramko

Affiliation National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Department of Biological Science, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, United States of America

Michael W. Davidson

Affiliation National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Department of Biological Science, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, United States of America

Yishi Jin

Affiliations Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America, Division of Biological Science, Section of Neurobiology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America

Mark H. Ellisman

Affiliations National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, Center for Research on Biological Systems, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America, Department of Neurosciences, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America,

Roger Y. Tsien

rtsien@ucsd.edu (RYT); xiaokun.shu@ucsf.edu (XS)

Affiliations Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America, Department of Pharmacology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

The author(s) have made the following declarations about their contributions: Conceived and designed the experiments: XS RYT. Performed the experiments: XS VL TJD YQ EBR MWD. Analyzed the data: XS VL TJD YQ MWD YJ MHE RYT. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: XS VL TJD YQ EBR MWD YJ MHE RYT. Wrote the paper: XS MHE RYT. Proposal of engineering FMN-binding phototropins as genetically encoded and efficient SOGs, with following research design, engineering, and characterization of miniSOG: XS. Coordination and guidance of correlated LM/EM: MHE. Coordination and proposal of the desirability of a genetically encoded SOG: RYT.