Retracing Evolution of Red Fluorescence in GFP-Like Proteins from Faviina Corals

Retracing evolution of red fluorescence in GFP-like proteins from Faviina corals.

Proteins of the green fluorescent protein family represent a convenient experimental model to study evolution of novelty at the molecular level. Here, we focus on the origin of Kaede-like red fluorescent proteins characteristic of the corals of the Faviina suborder. We demonstrate, using an original approach involving resurrection and analysis of the library of possible evolutionary intermediat...

Mechanistic diversity of red fluorescence acquisition by GFP-like proteins.

This review aims to summarize our current state of knowledge of several post-translational modification mechanisms known to yield red fluorescence in the family of GFP-like (green fluorescent protein-like) proteins. We begin with a brief review of the maturation mechanism that leads to green fluorescence in GFPs. The main body of this article is focused on a series of main chain redox and beta-...

A hinge migration mechanism unlocks the evolution of green-to-red photoconversion in GFP-like proteins.

In proteins, functional divergence involves mutations that modify structure and dynamics. Here we provide experimental evidence for an evolutionary mechanism driven solely by long-range dynamic motions without significant backbone adjustments, catalytic group rearrangements, or changes in subunit assembly. Crystallographic structures were determined for several reconstructed ancestral proteins ...

GFP-like proteins stably accumulate in lysosomes.

Green fluorescent protein (GFP) from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, its GFP variants (Aequorea GFPs), and more recently the novel GFP-like proteins from Anthozoa have greatly advanced our technologies for fluorescently labeling cells, organelles, and proteins. It has been shown, however, that some GFP-like proteins have a tendency to oligomerize and aggregate. Transfection of GFP-like protein...

Alternative Cyclization in GFP-like Proteins Family