Product Catalog

Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) is a spontaneously fluorescent 27- kDa protein originally isolated from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria (1). The molecular cloning of the GFP gene (2) and its subsequent expression in heterologous systems (3) has established GFP as a valuable reporter molecule for in vivo visualization of gene expression events in a wide variety of cell types and organisms. Since GFP requires no additional substrates or cofactors, GFP’s green fluorescence can be easily detected using blue or UV light after expression in either prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells. In addition, several mutant forms of GFP with unique spectral properties (e.g., enhanced fluorescence signal and shifts in excitation and emission spectra) have been reported (4,5).

References

1. Ward, W.W., Cody, C.W., Hart, R.C. and Cormier, M.J. (1980) Photochem. Photobiol. 31, 611–615.
2. Prasher, D.C., Eckenrode, V.K., Ward, W.W., Prendergast, F.G. and Cormier, M.J. (1992) Gene 111, 229–233.
3. Chalfie, M., Tu, Y., Euskirchen, G., Ward, W.W. and Prasher, D.C. (1994) Science 263, 802–805.
4. Cormack, B.P., Valdivia, R., and Falkow, S. (1996) Gene 173, 33-38.
5. Crameri, A., Whitehorn, E.A., Tate, E. and Stemmer, W.P.C. (1996) Nature Biotechnology 14, 315–319.