METHODS : Shedding light on animals’ interiors

Bright far-red fluorescent proteins that emit light at longer wavelengths than typical red fluorescent proteins, improving their usefulness for deep imaging in living animals.
Fluorescent proteins are invaluable tools for many types of biological investigation. The light from the best performing fluorescent proteins, however, has a difficult time penetrating living tissue due to the relatively short wavelengths emitted. This has limited the usefulness of these proteins for in vivo fluorescence imaging of whole animals. But fluorescent proteins that emit longer wavelength light, in the far-red and infrared regions of the spectrum, have so far been difficult to develop.
Dmitriy Chudakov and colleagues previously cloned a bright red fluorescent protein from a sea anemone. They engineered this protein to increase the wavelength of the emitted light while retaining its brightness. These longer wavelengths of light penetrate tissue more efficiently making detection of fluorescence emanating from deep inside an animal easier than with existing fluorescent proteins. The researchers developed two versions of the protein that are best suited for different applications. These will aid many researchers in different fields of biology who can benefit from the improved in vivo imaging performance the proteins offer.

Author contact:
Dmitriy Chudakov (Shemiakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Moscow, Russia)
Tel: +7 495 429 8020; E-mail: ChudakovDM@mail.ru