Abstract:[Background] Amid the aggravating environmental pollution, increasing organisms are endangered by nuclear radiation, chemical pollution, and biological pollution, which seriously disrupts the balance of ecosystems. Deinococcus radiodurans with remarkable performance of DNA repair can survive in various extreme environments. PprI acts as a switch in the DNA repair process in D.radiodurans, and the heterologous expression of this protein can significantly enhance the survival rates of other eukaryotes and prokaryotes in extreme conditions. The available studies on PprI molecules are predominantly conducted with biochemical methods, and the real-time dynamic observation on reactions of single PprI molecules in living cells remains underdeveloped. [Objective] We explored the dynamics of PprI at the single-molecule level before and after DNA damage and revealed the role of PprI in DNA repair, aiming to enhance our understanding of the DNA repair mechanism in D.radiodurans. [Methods] The PprI molecules of D.radiodurans were labeled with the photo-activated fluorescent protein mMaple3. The low-density mMaple3 fluorescent protein was continuously activated by single-particle tracking photoactivated localization microscopy (sptPALM) based on total internal reflection fluorescent (TIRF) microimaging to realize the single-molecule localization and tracking of PprI in living cells, on the basis of which the molecular dynamics of PprI molecules before and after DNA damage was clarified. [Results] By analyzing the distribution of the apparent diffusion coefficients of PprI molecules, we identified three distinct species: immobile molecules (D*=0.07 μm2/s), slow-diffusing molecules (D*=0.21 μm2/s), and fast-diffusing molecules (D*=0.65 μm2/s). After DNA damage, we observed a significant increase in the proportion of diffusing PprI molecules and a significant decrease in the proportion of immobile molecules. [Conclusion] Using the single-molecule tracking technique, we accurately characterized the movement of PprI molecules, finding that most PprI molecules moved fast after DNA damage. Additionally, DNA damage at the surface released a large proportion of immobile PprI molecules. This study improves the molecular mechanism model of the PprI-mediated DNA repair system and paves a way for studying other DNA repair reactions using single-molecule techniques.