Green fluorescent protein
hideThe green fluorescent protein (GFP) is protein composed of 238 amino acids (26.9kDa), which exhibits bright green fluorescence when exposed to blue light. Although many other marine organisms have similar green fluorescent proteins, GFP traditionally refers to the protein first isolated from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria. The GFP from A. victoria has a major excitation peak at a wavelength of 395 nm and a minor one at 475 nm. Its emission peak is at 509 nm which is in the lower green portion of the visible spectrum. The GFP from the sea pansy (Renilla reniformis) has a single major excitation peak at 498 nm. In cell and molecular biology, the GFP gene is frequently used as a reporter of expression. In modified forms it has been used to make biosensors, and many animals have been created that express GFP as a proof-of-concept that a gene can be expressed throughout a given organism. The GFP gene can be introduced into organisms and maintained in their genome through breeding, injection with a viral vector, or cell transformation. To date, the GFP gene has been introduced and expressed in many bacteria, yeast and other fungi, fish (such as zebrafish), plant, fly, and mammalian cells, including human. Martin Chalfie, Osamu Shimomura, and Roger Y. Tsien were awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on 8 October 2008 for their discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein.
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News tagged with green fluorescent protein
Vibrations key to efficiency of green fluorescent protein
Nov 11, 2009 |
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University of California, Berkeley, chemists have discovered the secret to the success of a jellyfish protein whose green glow has made it the darling of biologists and the subject of the 2008 Nobel Prize ...
Scientists first to see RNA network in live bacterial cells
Oct 22, 2009 |
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Scientists who study RNA have faced a formidable roadblock: trying to examine RNA's movements in a living cell when they can't see the RNA. Now, a new technology has given scientists the first look ever at RNA in a live ...
Transgenic songbirds provide new tool to understand the brain
Oct 05, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Over the decades, scientists have learned a lot about the basic life processes shared by many animals — including people — by manipulating the DNA of the "lower" species, such as mice and worms. But to date, ...
Genetically engineered bacteria compute the route
Jul 24, 2009 |
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US researchers have created 'bacterial computers' with the potential to solve complicated mathematics problems. The findings of the research, published in BioMed Central's open access Journal of Biological Engineering, demons ...
Scientists find molecule that regulates heart size by using zebrafish screening model
Jul 05, 2009 |
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Using zebrafish, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have identified and described an enzyme inhibitor that allows them to increase the number of cardiac progenitor cells and therefore influence the size of the developing ...
World first: Japanese scientists create transgenic monkeys
May 27, 2009 |
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In a controversial achievement, Japanese scientists announced on Wednesday they had created the world's first transgenic primates, breeding monkeys with a gene that made the animals' skin glow a fluorescent ...
Unusually large family of green fluorescent proteins discovered in marine creature
May 20, 2009 |
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Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have discovered a family of green fluorescent proteins (GFPs) in a primitive sea animal, along ...
Using high-precision laser tweezers to juggle cells
May 15, 2009 |
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Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have developed a new method to study single cells while exposing them to controlled environmental changes. The unique method, where a set of laser tweezers ...
Expression of infrared fluorescence engineered in mammals
May 07, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of California, San Diego - led by 2008 Nobel-Prize winner Roger Tsien, PhD - have shown that bacterial proteins called phytochromes can be engineered into infrared-fluorescent ...
Regulation of cell proliferation by the OGF-OGFr axis is dependent on nuclear localization signals
Apr 23, 2009 |
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Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania have discovered that the efficacy of the Opioid Growth Factor (OGF, [Met5]-enkephalin), a clinically important antitumor agent, is ...
Transparent zebrafish a must-see model for atherosclerosis
Mar 05, 2009 |
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We usually think of fish as a "heart-healthy" food. Now fish are helping researchers better understand how heart disease develops in studies that could lead to new drugs to slow disease and prevent heart ...
New clues about mitochondrial 'growth spurts'
Mar 02, 2009 |
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Mitochondria are restless, continually merging and splitting. But contrary to conventional wisdom, the size of these organelles depends on more than fusion and fission, as Berman et al. show. Mitochondrial ...
Brain protein may be a target for fast-acting antidepressants
Feb 25, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- It takes weeks or months for the effect of most antidepressants to kick in, time that can feel like an eternity to those who need the drugs the most. But new research suggests that a protein called p11, previously ...
