Related topics: protein

A new way to see the activity inside a living cell

Living cells are bombarded with many kinds of incoming molecular signal that influence their behavior. Being able to measure those signals and how cells respond to them through downstream molecular signaling networks could ...

Jellyfish: Our complex relationship with the oceans' anti-heroes

Ding! The courier hands me an unassuming brown box with "live animals" plastered on the side. I begin carefully unboxing. The cardboard exterior gives way to a white polystyrene clamshell, cloistering a pearly sphere-shaped, ...

Using glowing fish to detect harmful pesticides

Birth defects related to chromosomal abnormalities often stem from exposure to chemicals early in the mother's life. But determining which chemicals are at fault poses a serious challenge—akin to solving a hit-and-run case, ...

DNA can fold into complex shapes to execute new functions

DNA can mimic protein functions by folding into elaborate, three-dimensional structures, according to a study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National ...

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Green fluorescent protein

The 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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