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A bright idea

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 3, page 838 (2002)Cite this article

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GFP normally exist in two forms — a 'neutral' and an 'anionic' form, which produce major and minor absorbance peaks, respectively. Intense illumination with ∼400-nm light converts GFP mainly to the anionic form, which results in an increase in minor peak absorbance, as well as a subsequent threefold increase in fluorescence after excitation at 488 nm.

Patterson and Lippincott-Schwartz therefore decided to search for a GFP variant with a reduced minor absorbance peak. They hoped that if they could find such a variant, it would mean that photoconversion with ∼400-nm light would produce a larger increase in minor peak absorbance, and therefore a more marked increase in fluorescence after 488-nm excitation.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Patterson, G. H. & Lippincott-Schwartz, J. A photoactivatable GFP for selective photolabelling of proteins and cells. Science 297, 1873–1877 (2002)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Lippincott-Schwartz, J., Snapp, E. & Kenworthy, A. Studying protein dynamics in living cells. Nature Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 2, 444–456 (2001)

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Authors
  1. Rachel Smallridge
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Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz's laboratory 

Encyclopedia of Life Sciences

green fluorescent protein

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Smallridge, R. A bright idea. Nat Rev Neurosci 3, 838 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn981

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn981

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