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Russian Journal of Bioorganic Chemistry, Vol. 28, No. 4, 2002, đ . 274
Key Amino Acid Residues Responsible for the Color of Green and Yellow Fluorescent Proteins from the Coral Polyp Zoanthus sp.
Yu. G. Yanushevich*, M. E. Bulina*, N. G. Gurskaya*, A. P. Savitskii**, and K. A. Lukyanov* 1
*Shemyakin–Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Miklukho-Maklaya 16/10, GSP Moscow, 117997 Russia ,**Bach Institute of Biochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskii pr. 33, Moscow, 117071 Russia
Abstract: Site-directed mutagenesis was used to study the structural basis of color diversity of fluorescent proteins by the example of two closely related proteins from one organism (coral polyp Zoanthus sp.), one of which produces green and the other, yellow fluorescence. As a result, the following conversions of emission colors were performed: from yellow to green, from yellow to a dual color (yellow and green), and from green to yellow. The saltatory character of the spectral transitions and the manifestation of the dual-color fluorescence suggest that chemically different fluorophores are responsible for the green and yellow fluorescence. The simultaneous presence of three residues, Gly63, Lys65, and Asp68, is necessary for the efficient formation of the yellow rather than green fluorophore.
Key words: green fluorescent protein, GFP, zFP506, zFP538, mutagenesis