Reduced photobleaching of BODIPY-FL

We present a study of the photophysical properties of the BODIPY-FL fluorescent dye at the single molecule scale using total internal reflexion fluorescence microscopy. We characterized the saturation intensity and the maximum number of fluorescence photons for single BODIPY-FL in a usual buffer. We then studied the influence of the buffer depletion in oxygen and the addition of redox agents on the brightness and the lifetime before photobleaching of the BODIPY-FL. The great improvement of these two factors in such a medium allows the use of BODIPY-FL in single-molecule biophysics experiments.