title: Aequorea victoria bioluminescence moves into an exciting new era.
abstract: Bioluminescence has revolutionized research into many cellular and molecular-biological processes, ranging from intracellular signalling to gene transcription. This article focuses on the chemistry and biotechnological exploitation of the two proteins involved in bioluminescence of the jellyfish Aequorea victoria--aequorin and green fluorescent protein. Engineered recombinant aequorin has led to a novel technological approach to monitoring calcium signals in organelles and subcellular domains. A new generation of intracellular calcium indicators has been produced in which engineered variants of green fluorescent protein are used to probe their ionic environment using intramolecular fluorescence-resonance-energy transfer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biochemistry, University of Wales College of Medicine, Health Park, Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Kendall
authors.forename: M N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Badminton
mesh_terms: D000331:Aequorin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001059:Apoproteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001665:Binding Sites; D001709:Biotechnology; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D037401:Scyphozoa / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001059:Apoproteins; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; C060014:apoaequorin; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D000331:Aequorin; D002118:Calcium