FLUORESCENT PROTEINS: PHYSICAL-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES AND APPLICATION IN CELL BIOLOGY
Olesya V. Stepanenko,1 V. V. Verkhusha,2 I. M. Kuznetsova,1
K. K. Turoverov 1
1 Institute of Cytology RAS, St. Petersburg, Russia, and 2 Department of Anatomy and
Structural Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York 10461, USA;
1 e-mail: kkt@mail.cytspb.rssi.ru
Green fluorescent protein (GFP) from jellyfish Aequorea victoria is the most extensively studied and widely
used in cell biology protein. At present novel naturally occurring GFP-like proteins have been discovered and
enhanced mutants of Aequorea GFP have been created. These mutants differ from wild-type GFP by stability,
value of quantum yield, absorption and fluorescence spectra position and photochemical properties. GFP-like
proteins are the fast growing family. This review is an attempt to characterize the main groups of GFP-like proteins,
describe their structure and mechanisms of chromophore formation and summarize the main trends of their
utilization as markers and biosensors in cell and molecular biology.
Key words: fluorescent proteins, chromoproteins, photoactivated proteins
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