Two plants grown in garden soil, one to express Growth Fluoro Protein (GFP) and other firefly luciferase. In dark, which of the following will be seen?
a. Plant expressing GPF will glow
b. Plant expressing firefly luciferase will glow
c. Both the plants will glow
d. Both the plants will not glow
a. Plant expressing GPF will glow
b. Plant expressing firefly luciferase will glow
c. Both the plants will glow
d. Both the plants will not glow
Ans.
B.
Firefly
luciferase is by far the most commonly used bioluminescent reporter. Firefly
luciferase is slightly different from GFP, a photoprotein. Luciferase is a
generic term for the class of oxidative enzymes used in bioluminescence and is
distinct from a photoprotein.
The green fluorescent protein (GFP) is a protein composed of 238 amino acid
residues (26.9kDa) that exhibits bright green fluorescence when exposed to blue
light. Photoproteins (GPF) don’t require any special pigments, enzymes or
chemicals to set it off. Once expressed, it simply needs mineral substrates to
emit fluorescence. GFP was originally recruited from jellyfish. It has the same
purpose as the luciferase enzyme in molecular biology, to mark the expression
of select genes. At least in the lab, it GFP also requires to shine blue light
(or sometimes UV) for it to emit the green fluorescence. It’s such a standard
tool now, in mice, plants, flies, fish studies.
