2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Green fluorescent protein, GFP Osamu Shimomura Jellyfish/ bioluminescence Purified and characterized GFP (1974) Marty Chalfie Obtained the GFP gene (gfp) clone from Prasher in Made promoter::GFP And Promoter::GFP::Gene expression vectors to show the When and where genes are expressed. Roger Tsien Figured out how GFP glows Made variants with different colors

2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry the other guys Douglas Prasher The first person to realize the potential of GFP as a tracer molecule. Cloned GFP in 1992! Sergey A. Lukyanov Identified and cloned GFP-like proteins in corals

GFP Jellyfish Aequorea victoria photoorgans

GFP Figure 2. Fluorescence excitation (full-line curve) and emission (dashed curve) spectra of native GFP from Aequorea victoria (Tsien et al., 1998). nm

GFP MSKGEELFTGVVPVLVELDGDVNGQKFSVSGEGEGDATYGKLTLNFICTTGKLPV PWPTLVTTFSYGVQCFSRYPDHMKQHDFFKSAMPEGYVQERTIFYKDDGNY KTRAEVKFEGDTLVNRIELKGIDFKEDGNILGHKMEYNYNSHNVYIMGDKPKN GIKVNFKIRHNIKDGSVQLADHYQQNTPIGDGPVLLPDNHYLSTQSALSKDPN EKRDHMILLEFVTAARITHGMDELYK 1 atgagtaaag gagaagaact tttcactgga gtggtcccag ttcttgttga attagatggc 61 gatgttaatg ggcaaaaatt ctctgtcagt ggagagggtg aaggtgatgc aacatacgga 121 aaacttaccc ttaattttat ttgcactact gggaagctac ctgttccatg gccaacactt 181 gtcactactt tctcttatgg tgttcaatgc ttctcaagat acccagatca tatgaaacag 241 catgactttt tcaagagtgc catgcccgaa ggttatgtac aggaaagaac tatattttac 301 aaagatgacg ggaactacaa gacacgtgct gaagtcaagt ttgaaggtga tacccttgtt 361 aatagaatcg agttaaaagg tattgatttt aaagaagatg gaaacattct tggacacaaa 421 atggaataca actataactc acataatgta tacatcatgg gagacaaacc aaagaatggc 481 atcaaagtta acttcaaaat tagacacaac attaaagatg gaagcgttca attagcagac 541 cattatcaac aaaatactcc aattggcgat ggccctgtcc ttttaccaga caaccattac 601 ctgtccacac aatctgccct ttccaaagat cccaacgaaa agagagatca catgatcctt 661 cttgagtttg taacagctgc taggattaca catggcatgg atgaactata caaa

Figure 3. The tertiary structure of GFP, displaying its can- like shape with the α-helix, containing the chromophore, threading up through the can. (Brejc et al., 1997)

GFP color variants Have altered absorbsion/emission spectra.