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Going green

Nature Structural Biology volume 7, page 1089 (2000)Cite this article

The green fluorescent protein (GFP) is one of those tools, like the polymerase chain reaction, that it is hard to imagine living without. Tagging proteins with GFP has revolutionized biology, making it possible to visualize particular cells in living organisms, such as Caenorhabditis elegans, and to watch molecules move during biological processes, such as cell division.

The development of GFP as a molecular tool has its roots in the study of bioluminescence, a phenomenon found most commonly in marine organisms such as jellyfish, corals, and dinoflagellates. Bioluminescence differs from fluorescence in one important aspect. In the former, light is produced by an inherent chemical reaction whereas in the latter, radiation of a particular wavelength is absorbed by a fluorescent molecule, and subsequently light of a different wavelength is emitted by that molecule. It was discovered many years ago that certain organisms use bioluminescent proteins and fluorescent proteins in tandem to emit light of a particular wavelength, although the biological advantage of emitting such light is not known.

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  1. Tracy Smith
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Smith, T. Going green. Nat Struct Mol Biol 7, 1089 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/81925

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