Green protein donor of electrons

2009/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biokimika

They discover the true function of the favorite fluorescent green protein

Although the fluorescent green protein is widely known and used in science, until now its function in nature was totally unknown. According to a group of researchers from the Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Bioorganic Chemistry Institute of Moscow, when light affects the green fluorescent protein, it supplies electrons, if there are molecules to receive them. The curious thing is that by releasing the electrons the green protein becomes red.

Since its isolation from jellyfish in the 1960s, it has been very useful for scientists. It is easy for organisms to create a green protein and the protein they want to study, so it is a perfect tool for tracking proteins, since the protein tandems they generate emit green light.

However, this protein property does not seem to have great importance in the animals they produce. In them he acts as a donor of electrons in multiple cellular reactions. By releasing the electrons somehow changes the chromium of the protein, the part that gives color, thus becoming red.