A Protein Reality Show: A Photoactivatable GFP for Selective Photolabeling of Proteins and Cells
Science 9/13/02. Coming soon to the microscope: an uncensored, real-time look at a group of proteins, whose every move inside a cell is visible for days. Attaching a new type of fluorescent "tag" to proteins makes them glow green in response to radiation by visible light, researchers report. The tag is actually a modified protein itself, with a mutation that makes it fluoresce 100 times brighter than normally in response to visible light. To demonstrate how their technique works, George H. Patterson and colleagues selectively "photoactivated" a subset of the fluorescing proteins as they were expressed in a cell and watched them move across the nuclear envelope and into the cytoplasm in a matter of minutes. They also attached the tags to a certain protein in the membrane around the cell's lysosomes, structures that receive and digest materials from the environment. Unexpectedly, the tags moved extensively among the lysosomes, the authors report. 

"A Photoactivatable GFP for Selective Photolabeling of Proteins and Cells," by G. H. Patterson and J. Lippinscott-Schwartz at National Institute of Child Health and Human Development-NIH in Bethesda, MD. 

CONTACT: Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz at 301402-1009 (phone), 301-402-0078 (fax), or jlippin@helix.nih.gov  (email)

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