The world's first wiki where authorship really matters (Nature Genetics, 2008). Due credit and reputation for authors. Imagine a global collaborative knowledge base for original thoughts. Search thousands of articles and collaborate with scientists around the globe.

wikigene or wiki gene protein drug chemical gene disease author authorship tracking collaborative publishing evolutionary knowledge reputation system wiki2.0 global collaboration genes proteins drugs chemicals diseases compound
Hoffmann, R. A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nature Genetics (2008)
 
 
 
 
 

Reversible single-molecule photoswitching in the GFP-like fluorescent protein Dronpa.

Reversible photoswitching of individual molecules has been demonstrated for a number of mutants of the green fluorescent protein (GFP). To date, however, a limited number of switching events with slow response to light have been achieved at the single-molecule level. Here, we report reversible photoswitching characteristics observed in individual molecules of Dronpa, a mutant of a GFP-like fluorescent protein that was cloned from a coral Pectiniidae. Ensemble spectroscopy shows that intense irradiation at 488 nm changes Dronpa to a dim protonated form, but even weak irradiation at 405 nm restores it to the bright deprotonated form. Although Dronpa exists in an acid-base equilibrium, only the photoinduced protonated form shows the switching behavior. At the single-molecule level, 488- and 405-nm lights can be used to drive the molecule back and forth between the bright and dim states. Such reversible photoswitching could be repeated >100 times. The response speed to irradiation depends almost linearly on the irradiation power, with the response time being in the order of milliseconds. The perfect reversibility of the Dronpa photoswitching allows us to propose a detailed model, which quantitatively describes interconversion among the various states. The fast response of Dronpa to light holds great promise for following fast diffusion or transport of signaling molecules in live cells.[1]

References

  1. Reversible single-molecule photoswitching in the GFP-like fluorescent protein Dronpa. Habuchi, S., Ando, R., Dedecker, P., Verheijen, W., Mizuno, H., Miyawaki, A., Hofkens, J. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (2005) [Pubmed]
 
WikiGenes - Universities