Discosoma sp. red fluorescent proteins

Shaner NC, Campbell RE, Steinbach PA, Giepmans BN, Palmer AE, Tsien RY (2004) Improved monomeric red, orange and yellow fluorescent proteins derived from Discosoma sp. red fluorescent protein. Nat Biotechnol 22 1567-1572... 

The second major breakthrough for the application of fluorescent proteins was the isolation of the red fluorescent protein (RFP) drFP583 or DsRed from the Anthozoa and Discosoma sp., a mushroom-shaped anemone found in the warm waters of the Indo-Pacific ocean [13], The breakthrough was not only the discovery of the first true RFP, but equally important was the fact that it was discovered in a nonbioluminescent species and that the gene was cloned immediately. 

However, during the last decade a number of GFP mutants were described showing altered spectral properties and/or improved solubility upon expression in heterologous systems. In addition, numerous other naturally occurring fluorescent proteins were described such as the red-fluorescent protein from Discosoma sp. (DsRED). A comprehensive description of the available fluorescent proteins is given including the spectral properties, amino-acid sequence alignments, comparisons of the secondary and tertiary structures of the proteins. 

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