Carbon Dots for Studying Muscle Architecture

We introduce a carbon-dot-based fluorescent label for F-actin with high labeling specificity that allowed us to perform three-dimensional fluorescence imaging of thick muscle tissues. Actin-binding proteins play a pivotal role in the sarcomere, regulating actin-filament morphology, stability, and dynamics. We studied the morphology of Caenorhabditis elegans nematode body-wall-muscle cells as well as changes with the mutation of various actin-binding proteins. The obtained results of the study of a newly generated by us dbn-1(vit7) C. elegans mutant muscle structure are important in order to understand the development of drebrin-like protein-caused heart failure in humans.