Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) of the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, that lived on Earth for millions of years before being discovered, was first purified and characterized in 1962, by Osamu Shimomura, a Japanese organic chemist and marine biologist. GFP is excited by light in the blue/violet/ultraviolet portion of the spectrum, and emits light in the green portion (hence the name). The protein emits light by undergoing a process called photobleaching, where it absorbs light energy and then re-emits it as fluorescence.

Tagging a target protein with GFP allows its visualization, and the detection of its transgenic expression in vivo, as well as its subcellular localization, cell visualization and investigation of protein-protein interactions. It can be used for cell tracing and tracking. This easily detectable fluorescence has made GFP an invaluable tool in various biological studies, enabling researchers to visualize and understand complex biological processes in real-time. 

GFP antibody on Arabidopsis roots
Image: Rabbit polyclonal antibody to GFP, AS20 4443 used on roots of Arabidopsis thaliana.

Agrisera's antibody collection to Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) and its variants (EGFP, S65T-GFP, RFP like mCherry, RS-GFP, YFP and Venus) includes both, polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies with different labels, enzymatic and fluorescent, which detect both native and denatured GFP. 

  How is GFP used in plant science? 

  • To study plant organelles such as chloroplasts, mitochondria, peroxisomes, and the endoplasmic reticulum.

  • To study plant cell biology and development by visualizing cell division, differentiation and other cellular processes in real-time and on intact plant tissues.

  • To monitor plant stress response, by fusing GFP to stress-responsive genes, changes in GFP fluorescence in response to various environmental stresses can be monitored.

  • For investigation of plant-microbe (bacteria and fungi) interactions by tagging those microorganisms with GFP.

  • For transgenic plant studies, where GFP is used as a marker in the generation and selection of transgenic plants.

  • For environmental monitoring in ecological studies, GFP has been used as a biomarker to detect and monitor pollution, like algae.

  • In pollination and seed dispersal studies.
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