It is known to some scientist and researchers that the uses of GFP, Green Fluorescent Protein are also expanding into the world of art and commerce. Scientist and researcher Eduardo Kac has created a fluorescent green rabbit by engineering GFP into its cells with the help of a microscope. Breeders are exploring GFP, Green Fluorescent Protein as a way to create unique fluorescent plants and fishes. GFP has been added to rats, mice, frogs, flies, worms, and countless other living things and of course, these engineered plants and animals are still controversial, and are spurring important dialogue on the safety and morality of genetic engineering. The availability of green fluorescent protein and its derivatives has thoroughly redefined fluorescence microscopy and the way it is used in cell biology and other biological disciplines. While most small fluorescent molecules such as FITC ,fluorescein isothiocyanate are strongly phototoxic when used in live cells, fluorescent proteins such as GFP are usually much less harmful when illuminated in living cells. This has triggered the development of highly automated live cell fluorescence microscopy systems which can be used to observe cells over time expressing one or more proteins tagged with fluorescent proteins.
Analysis of such time lapse movies has redefined the understanding of many biological processes including protein folding, protein transport, and RNA dynamics, which in the past had been studied using fixed material. Another powerful use of GFP is to express the protein in small sets of specific cells. This allows researchers and scientist to optically detect specific types of cells in vitro, or even in vivo which can be seen in a normal living organism. The GFP gene can be introduced into organisms and maintained in their genome through breeding, or local injection with a viral vector can be used to introduce the gene. Until now, many bacteria, yeast and other fungal cells, plant, fly, and mammalian cells have been created using GFP as a marker. GFP is amazingly useful for studying living cells, and scientists are making it even more useful. They are engineering GFP molecules that fluoresce different colors. Scientists can now make blue fluorescent proteins, and yellow fluorescent proteins, and a host of others. The trick is to make small mutations that change the stability of the chromophore.
Thousands of different variants have been tried, and you can find several successes. Scientists are also using GFP to create biosensors: molecular machines that sense the levels of ions or pH, and then report the results by fluorescing in characteristic ways. A lot of people might be saying, who cares about this obscure little green protein from a jellyfish? It turns out that GFP Green Fluorescent Peotein is amazingly useful in scientific research, because it allows us to look directly into the inner workings of cells. It is easy to find out where GFP is at any given time: you just have to shine ultraviolet light, and any GFP will glow bright green. So here is the trick: you attach the GFP to any object that you are interested in watching. For instance, you can attach it to a virus. Then, as the virus spreads through the host, you can watch the spread by following the green glow. Or, you can attach it to a protein, and watch through the microscope as it moves around inside cells.
