We have not had much success with mCherry-tagged proteins. mCherry is pretty dim, and we have had problems with aggregation. We’ve heard that tagRFP is a better alternative and was wondering if anyone has had success with this fluor, how bright it is, etc.
Awhile back, I tested the same transcriptional reporter (for unc-119) with the original version of mRFP, with mCherry, and with mStrawberry. I got a half-dozen or more lines with each of the three constructs, and all of the mRFP and mCherry lines formed aggregates, but few or none (I can’t quite recall which) of the mStrawberry lines formed aggregates. The expression wasn’t tremendously bright, but as it was easily good enough for my purposes in this instance, which meant looking on a high-power compound scope, I didn’t try to re-inject at higher concentrations or to fiddle with it otherwise.
We haven’t tested the tagRFP but I just wanted to add that we have had pretty good experience with the version of mCherry that is optimised for C. elegans (see McNally et al, http://jcb.rupress.org/cgi/content/full/175/6/881). We have made a handful of translational fusions and, so far, all of them behave identical to their GFP counterparts.