珊瑚和海葵来源红荧光蛋白的研究和应用

绿色荧光蛋白作为标记蛋白和报告蛋白在生物学研究中应用越来越广。但在荧光共振能量转移(fluorescenceresonanceenergytransfer,FRET)等技术中存在一些缺陷,需要更大波长范围的荧光蛋白。最近研究发现了多种来源于珊瑚和海葵的红荧光蛋白,这些长波长的荧光蛋白对绿色荧光蛋白是一种很好的代替和补充,可以实现细胞内多荧光标记,提供更理想的FRET荧光对。经随机突变和定点突变等方法改建获得的红荧光蛋白变种显示出更高的荧光强度,成熟时间也更短。目前应用较多的是来源于香菇珊瑚(Discosomasp.)的红荧光蛋白DsRed。     

绿色荧光蛋白在蛋白质研究中的应用

绿色荧光蛋白（green fluorescent protein,GFP）自发现以来,由于具有自发荧光等特性,在分子生物学和细胞生物学领域得到广泛应用。GFP作为一种报道分子,在研究蛋白质相互作用和构象变化、检测蛋白质表达、蛋白质和细胞荧光示踪中,起到了重要的作用。该文通过对绿色荧光蛋白特性的分析．介绍其作为荧光标记在蛋白质研究中的应用,并展望进一步的研究前景。     

荧光蛋白在肿瘤分子影像研究中的应用

绿色荧光蛋白（green fluorescent protein,GFP）是在水母中发现的新型报告分子,该蛋白及其衍生物能在多种生物体内表达并发出荧光,是目前在生物学中研究和开发应用得最广泛的蛋白质之一。尤其是在肿瘤的研究中,荧光蛋白的分子影像可为深入揭示肿瘤发生发展的病理过程的机制,以及对其治疗进行实时、动态、细致、无创、靶向性的探测和跟踪提供有效手段。     

绿色荧光蛋白在转基因研究中的应用

绿色荧光蛋白(green fluorescent prote in,GFP)是一种能够自身催化形成生色团并在蓝光或紫外光激发下发出绿色荧光的蛋白。有现代生物学北斗星之美誉的它,在生物学的很多领域都有广泛应用。GFP具有荧光稳定、易于检测、表达调控简单、生物安全性好等优点,在转基因研究中的各个方面均应用颇多。就GFP在转基因研究中的应用特点及应用进展做一综述。     

荧光能量转移技术在生物学研究中的应用

荧光能量转移(FRET)是指两个携带不同荧光基团的大分子在相互间距离足够近时(10～100A)所发生的能量非放射性地由一个荧光基团向另一个荧光基团转移的现象。结合绿色荧光蛋白的发现,FRET技术可用于检测生物大分子中不同亚基的位置和生物大分子间的相互作用。近年来,FRET技术在生物学研究中的突破性进展是在活体细胞中实时监测生物大分子之间的相互作用。本文就绿色荧光蛋白的发现,FRET技术的原理、研究进展和应用前景作简要综述。     

绿色荧光蛋白及其在植物分子生物学研究中的应用

绿色荧光蛋白(GFP)是海洋生物水母(Aequoria victoria)体内的一种发光蛋白,近十年来成为在生物化学和细胞生物学研究和应用中用得最广泛的蛋白质之一。文章就绿色荧光蛋白的特性及其在植物分子生物学中应用的研究进展作了概述。     

绿色荧光蛋白及其应用

绿色荧光蛋白是在水母中发现的新型报告分子,能在多种生物体内表达并发出荧光。对GFP中一些特定氨基酸进行突变可以产生多种类型的突变体,有利于研究蛋白之间或细胞器之间的相互作用。目前,GFP已经用于基因表达的报告、细胞动态的研究、活细胞内蛋白的定位及westernbloting检测中。GFP美好的应用前景也促进了有关GFP的研究,特别是寻找新的突变体并将之运用到细胞生物学和分子生物学的各个领域。     

含Dsred类似生色团的红色荧光蛋白的发展及应用

自从绿色荧光蛋白(GFP)被发现以来,荧光蛋白在生物医学领域已经成为一种重要的荧光成像工具．随着红色荧光蛋白DsRed的出现,各种优化的DsRed突变体和远红荧光蛋白也不断涌现．其中荧光蛋白生色团的形成机制对改建更优的荧光蛋白变种影响很大,对于红色荧光蛋白而言,大多数的红色荧光蛋白的生色团类型为DsRed类似生色团,在此基础上又出现了Far-red DsRed类似生色团．目前,含DsRed类似生色团的荧光蛋白主要有单体红色荧光蛋白、光转换荧光蛋白、斯托克斯红移蛋白、荧光计时器等．这些优化的荧光蛋白作为分子探针可以实现对活细胞、细胞器或胞内分子的时空标记和追踪,已经在生物工程学、细胞生物学、基础医学领域得到广泛应用．本文综述了含DsRed类似生色团的荧光蛋白的研究进展及其应用,以及由此发展起来的远红荧光蛋白在活体显微成像技术中的应用,并展望了荧光探针技术研究的新方向．     

绿色荧光蛋白及其应用

随着对绿色荧光蛋白(green fluorescent protein,GFP)研究的不断深入,人们对其结构、荧光产生机理等已有较为全面的认识。近年来利用GFP及其它荧光蛋白(FPs)发展了诸如荧光互补技术(FC)、荧光共振能量转移技术(FRET)和超分辨成像(super-resolution imaging)等一系列新技术,极大地促进了生物学、医药科学的研究。主要介绍了荧光蛋白的结构,荧光产生的机理,不同类型的荧光蛋白和基于荧光蛋白产生的新技术等方面的最新研究进展。     

绿色荧光蛋白—现代细胞生物学与分子生物学研究领域的新标记物

从多管水母属Ａｅｑｕｏｒｅｎ ｖｉｃｔｕｒｉａ分离出的绿色荧光蛋白,因其特有的生物化学性质及该基因在异源细胞内的表达产物亦能产生强烈的绿色荧光,使其在现代细胞生物学和分子生物学研究领域的应用具有广阔前景。本文就其研究进展及春应用进行简要综述。     

Identification of GFP-like Proteins in Nonbioluminescent,Azooxanthellate Anthozoa Opens New Perspectives for Bioprospecting

We screened nonbioluminescent, azooxanthellate cnidaria as potential sources for advanced marker proteins and succeeded in cloning a tetrameric green fluorescent protein (GFP) from the tentacles of Cerianthus membranaceus. The fluorescence of this protein (cmFP512) is characterized by excitation maximum at 503 nm, emission maximum at 512 nm, extinction coefficient of 58,800 M^–1 cm^–1, quantum yield of 0.66, and fluorescence lifetime of 2.4 ns. The chromophore is formed from the tripeptide Gln-Tyr-Gly. The amino acid sequence of this protein shares 17.8% identical residues with GFP from Aequorea victoria. Weak interactions between the subunits of the tetramer make cmFP512 a promising lead structure for the generation of monomeric variants of fluorescent proteins. Both red fluorescent proteins and nonfluorescent proteins of the GFP family were also purified from tissue homogenates of Adamsia palliata and Calliactis parasitica. The results presented here indicate that a photoprotective function of GFP-like proteins is unlikely in the examined anthozoa species.     

Development of transgenic fish for ornamental and bioreactor by strong expression of fluorescent proteins in the skeletal muscle

In the present study, new applications of the transgenic technology in developing novel varieties of ornamental fish and bioreactor fish were explored in a model fish, the zebrafish (Danio rerio). Three "living color" fluorescent proteins, green fluorescent protein (GFP), yellow fluorescent protein (YFP), and red fluorescent protein (RFP or dsRed), were expressed under a strong muscle-specific mylz2 promoter in stable lines of transgenic zebrafish. These transgenic zebrafish display vivid fluorescent colors (green, red, yellow, or orange) visible to unaided eyes under both daylight and ultraviolet light in the dark. The level of foreign protein expression is estimated between 3% and 17% of total muscle proteins, equivalent to 4.8-27.2mg/g wet muscle tissue. Thus, the fish muscle may be explored as another useful bioreactor system for production of recombinant proteins. In spite of the high level of foreign protein expression, the expression of endogenous mylz2 mRNAs was not negatively affected. Furthermore, compared to the wild-type fish, these fluorescent transgenic fish have no advantage in survival and reproduction.     

Chromoproteins of the green fluorescent protein family: Properties and applications

The distribution in nature and the spectral and structural properties of chromoproteins of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) family and their differences from one another and other fluorescent proteins of this family are considered. Discussed in detail are practical applications of the chromoproteins and their mutant variants that have unique characteristics not found among natural proteins of the GFP family, such as far-red or photoconvertible fluorescence, a large Stokes shift, enhanced phototoxicity, etc.     

Kinetic study of de novo chromophore maturation of fluorescent proteins

Green fluorescent protein (GFP) has a chromophore that forms autocatalytically within the folded protein. Although many studies have focused on the precise mechanism of chromophore maturation, little is known about the kinetics of de novo chromophore maturation. Here we present a simple and efficient method for examining the de novo kinetics. GFP with an immature chromophore was synthesized in a reconstituted cell-free protein synthesis system under anaerobic conditions. Chromophore maturation was initiated by rapid dilution in an air-saturated maturation buffer, and the time course of fluorescence development was monitored. Comparison of the de novo maturation rates in various GFP variants revealed that some folding mutations near the chromophore promoted rapid chromophore maturation and that the accumulation of mutations could reduce the maturation rate. Our method will contribute to the design of rapidly maturing fluorescent proteins with improved characteristics for real-time monitoring of cellular events.     

利用荧光蛋白对大肠杆菌蛋白质Tat转运系统的研究

探讨了荧光蛋白作为报告蛋白用于蛋白质转运系统研究的可行性 ,结果表明海葵红色荧光蛋白聚集在细胞质内 ,不能转运至周质空间。而水母绿色荧光蛋白在Tat信号肽和Tat转运酶的共同作用下 ,以折叠形式转运至周质空间。通过荧光定量分析表明信号肽保守序列中的双精氨酸是保证绿色荧光蛋白转运及转运效率所必需的 ,且第二个精氨酸比第一个精氨酸更为重要。同时 ,揭示了Tat信号肽需要一定的高级结构才能行使功能 ;Tat信号肽不仅引导蛋白质的转运 ,而且也参与蛋白质的折叠。因此 ,绿色荧光蛋白是非常理想的报告蛋白 ,可用于研究Tat系统 ,但是海葵红色荧光蛋白易于聚集而不适合于此目的。     

Engineering green fluorescent protein as a dual functional tag

A hexa-histidine (6 x His) sequence was inserted into a surface loop of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) to develop a dual functional GFP useful for both monitoring and purification of recombinant proteins. Two variants (GFP172 and GFP157), differentiated by the site of insertion of the 6xHis sequence, were developed and compared with a control variant (GFPHis) having the 6xHis sequence at its C-terminus. The variants were produced in Escherichia coli and purified using immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC). The purification efficiencies by IMAC for all variants were found to be comparable. Purified GFP172 and GFP157 variants retained approximately 60% of the fluorescence compared to that of GFPHis. The reduction in the fluorescence intensity associated with GFP172 and GFP157 was attributed to the lower percentage of fluorescent GFP molecules in these variants. Nonetheless, the rates of fluorescence acquisition were found to be similar for all functional variants. Protein misfolding at an elevated temperature (37 degrees C) was found to be less profound for GFP172 than for GFP157. The dual functional properties of GFP172 were tested with maltose binding protein (MBP) as the fusion partner. The MBP-GFP172 fusion protein remained fluorescent and was purified from E. coli lysate as well as from spiked tobacco leaf extracts in a single-step IMAC. For the latter, a recovery yield of approximately 75% was achieved and MBP-GFP172 was found to coelute with a degraded product of the fusion protein at a ratio of about 4:1. The primary advantage of the chimeric GFP tag having an internal hexa-histidine sequence is that such a tag allows maximum flexibility for protein or peptide fusions since both N- and C-terminal ends of the GFP are available for fusion.     

Functional expression of green fluorescent protein derivatives in Halobacterium salinarum

We investigated the applicability of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) of Aequorea victoria as a reporter for gene expression in an extremely halophilic organism: Halobacterium salinarum. Two recombinant GFPs were fused with bacteriorhodopsin, a typical membrane protein of H. salinarum. These fusion proteins preserved the intrinsic functions of each component, bacteriorhodopsin and GFP, were expressed in H. salinarum under conditions with an extremely high salt concentration, and were proved to be properly localized in its plasma membrane. These results suggest that GFP could be used as a versatile reporter of gene expression in H. salinarum for investigations of various halophilic membrane proteins, such as sensory rhodopsin or phoborhodopsin.     

Monitoring of conformational change in maltose binding protein using split green fluorescent protein

In this study, we describe a novel method for the detection of conformational changes in proteins, which is predicated on the reconstitution of split green fluorescent protein (GFP). We employed fluorescence complementation assays for the monitoring of the conformationally altered proteins. In particular, we used maltose binding protein (MBP) as a model protein, as MBP undergoes a characteristic hinge-twist movement upon substrate binding. The common feature of this approach is that GFP, as a reporter protein, splits into two non-fluorescent fragments, which are genetically fused to the N- and C-termini of MBP. Upon binding to maltose, the chromophores move closer together, resulting in the generation of fluorescence. This split GFP method also involves the reconstitution of GFP, which is determined via observations of the degree to which fluorescence intensity is restored. As a result, reconstituted GFP has been observed to generate fluorescence upon maltose binding in vitro, thereby allowing for the direct detection of changes in fluorescence intensity in response to maltose, in a concentration- and time-dependent fashion. Our findings showed that the fluorescence complementation assay can be used to monitor the conformational alterations of a target protein, and this ability may prove useful in a number of scientific and medical applications.