title: Generation of optimized yellow and red fluorescent proteins with distinct subcellular localization.
abstract: Fluorescent proteins (FPs) have revolutionized many aspects of cell biology and have become indispensable research tools. Today's increasingly complex experiments aiming to understand biological systems strongly depend on the availability of combinations of multiple FPs, which allow their distinguishable simultaneous detection in the same cell or tissue. Recently, the VENUS and DsRed. T4 FPs were described as the latest generation of yellow and red FPs. To increase the combinatorial possibilities when using these optimized FPs, we have generated and successfully tested seven new forms of VENUS and DsRed. T4 proteins with distinct subcellular localization. To facilitate their use as markers in biological experiments, bicistronic expression constructs, which have been optimized for robust expression in almost all mammalian developmental stages and cell types, were produced for the new FPs. In addition, several plasmids were created, which contain all necessary elements for inserting the reading frames of these FPs into specific gene loci in knock-in experiments without disrupting the reading frame of the endogenous gene.
authors.affiliation: RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, Kobe, 650-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Chiga
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Okita
authors.forename: Masae
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Timm
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schroeder
mesh_terms: D002460:Cell Line; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods*; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000379:methods*; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique / Q000379:methods*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D042541:Intracellular Space / Q000378:metabolism*; D007668:Kidney / Q000378:metabolism; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015202:Protein Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins