GEVIBench › All sensors › Bongwoori-R3
Bongwoori-R3
Bongwoori variant with an arginine-enriched linker that enlarges the fluorescence response and shifts voltage sensitivity near resting potential for robust action-potential imaging.
- Category: VSD-single FP
- Published: 2017-08-15 — Scientific Reports 2017
- Derived from: Bongwoori
- Response polarity: negative-going (fluorescence decreases on depolarization)
- Spectrum: excitation peak 488 nm, emission peak 511 nm (Bongwoori-R3)
- Plasmid: Addgene #137838 (No plain Bongwoori-R3 plasmid is deposited on Addgene. #137838 is PA-Bongwoori-R3, the photoactivatable derivative from the 2019 follow-up paper (Lee et al. 2019) — a different construct (Bongwoori-R3 fused to a photoactivation module), not the plain 2017 Bongwoori-R3 characterized on this page.)
- Tags: pHluorin, Ci-VSP, Two-photon
Headline values (as shown in the GEVIBench table)
| Metric | Value | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Brightness (B/B_EGFP) | 0.36× EGFP | Molecular brightness relative to EGFP (extinction coefficient × quantum yield, or a measured ratio). Sensors not measured against EGFP directly are placed through a chain of pairwise brightness comparisons, combined by geometric mean. |
| Kinetics τ_on / τ_off (ms) | 11 / 10 ms | Activation / decay time constants in ms (amplitude-weighted mean τ for multi-exponential fits). The value shown averages the measurements made at physiological temperature (≥33 °C); if there are none, it is the measurement closest to 33 °C. |
| ΔF/F per 100 mV | -20% (median of 2 measurements: −20%) | Steady-state fluorescence change for a 100 mV depolarization step (−70 → +30 mV); the sign gives the polarity. The table shows the first listed measurement; the median across measurements (one-photon preferred) is used for sorting. |
| ΔF/F per mV | 0.1% (estimated from the F–V curve) | Subthreshold sensitivity: fluorescence change per mV near rest (−90 to −50 mV). Where no value is reported directly, it is estimated from the F–V curve. |
| ΔF/F per AP | 5.9% | Fluorescence change per single action potential in neurons. The table shows the first listed measurement; the median across measurements (one-photon preferred) is used for sorting. |
| AP width (FWHM, ms) | — | Full width at half maximum of the optical spike waveform. |
| Photostability t75% @ 100 mW/mm² | 3.0 s | Time for fluorescence to fall to 75% of its initial value under one-photon illumination, linearly dose-scaled to 100 mW/mm² (t50% is used where the 75% crossing falls inside a fast initial transient). Two-photon curves are not dose-scaled and are excluded. |
| Papers using it (N_used) | 4 | Number of published research papers, tracked by GEVIBench, that used the sensor for an experiment (a popularity / track-record measure). |
Measurements and sources
Kinetics
- τ_on 11 ms, τ_off 10 ms at 34°C — Lee 2017, Table 2
ΔF/F per 100 mV
- -20%, 1P — Lee 2017, Fig. 4B
- -21%, 2P — Lee 2017, Fig. 4E
ΔF/F per action potential
- 5.9%, 1P — Lee 2017, Table 3
Brightness comparisons
- 1.89× the brightness of Bongwoori — Lee 2017, Table 3
Photobleaching
- t75% = 295 s at 1 mW/mm², 1P — Lee 2017, Fig. S1
Fluorescence–voltage (F–V) curve
ΔF/F (%) at each membrane potential, normalized to 0 at −70 mV: -120 mV: 1%; -70 mV: 0%; -20 mV: -9%; 30 mV: -20%; 80 mV: -26%; 130 mV: -27% — Lee 2017, Fig. 4B
Research papers using Bongwoori-R3 (4)
- Improving a genetically encoded voltage indicator by modifying the cytoplasmic charge composition — Lee S, et al., Scientific Reports 2017 (HEK293 cells; cultured mouse hippocampal neurons, in vitro)
- Engineering photoactivatability in genetically encoded voltage and pH indicators — Lee S, et al., Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience 2019 (HEK293 cells, in vitro)
- Visualizing oscillations in brain slices with genetically encoded voltage indicators — Rhee JK, et al., Frontiers in Neuroanatomy 2021 (Mouse motor cortex brain slices, ex vivo)
- Imaging electrical activity of retinal ganglion cells with fluorescent voltage and calcium indicator proteins in retinal degenerative rd1 blind mice — Jung Y, et al., ACS Chemical Neuroscience 2025 (Mouse rd1 retinal ganglion cells, ex vivo)
Data and citation
- llms.txt — summary for language models
- llms-full.txt — every sensor in full (Markdown)
- gevis.json — all values and measurements with sources (JSON)
- gevis.csv — one row per sensor (CSV)
Cite GEVIBench as: Adam E. Cohen and Daozheng Gong (2026). Voltage imaging: A practical guide. Neuron. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2026.08.002
Generated from the GEVIBench database on 2026-10-12.