Korotkova, DariaBorisyuk, AnyaGuihur, AnthonyBardyn, Manon SandraKuttler, FabienReymond, LucSchuhmacher, Milena MariaAmen, Triana2024-06-032024-06-032024-06-032024-05-2110.1038/s41467-024-48679-2https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/208178Peroxisomes are eukaryotic organelles that are essential for multiple metabolic pathways, including fatty acid oxidation, degradation of amino acids, and biosynthesis of ether lipids. Consequently, peroxisome dysfunction leads to pediatric-onset neurodegenerative conditions, including Peroxisome Biogenesis Disorders (PBD). Due to the dynamic, tissue-specific, and context-dependent nature of their biogenesis and function, live cell imaging of peroxisomes is essential for studying peroxisome regulation, as well as for the diagnosis of PBD-linked abnormalities. However, the peroxisomal imaging toolkit is lacking in many respects, with no reporters for substrate import, nor cell-permeable probes that could stain dysfunctional peroxisomes. Here we report that the BODIPY-C12 fluorescent fatty acid probe stains functional and dysfunctional peroxisomes in live mammalian cells. We then go on to improve BODIPY-C12, generating peroxisome-specific reagents, PeroxiSPY650 and PeroxiSPY555. These probes combine high peroxisome specificity, bright fluorescence in the red and far-red spectrum, and fast non-cytotoxic staining, making them ideal tools for live cell, whole organism, or tissue imaging of peroxisomes. Finally, we demonstrate that PeroxiSPY enables diagnosis of peroxisome abnormalities in the PBD CRISPR/Cas9 cell models and patient-derived cell lines.text::journal::journal article::research article