Cloning and characterization of new bioluminescent proteins

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Abstract
Over the past two years Prolume has undertaken a comprehensive program to clone luciferases and associated 'green fluorescent proteins' (GFPs) from marine animals that use coelenterazine as the luciferin. To data we have cloned several bioluminescent proteins, including two novel copepod luciferases and two anthozoan GFPs. These four proteins have sequences that differ greatly form previously cloned analogous proteins; the sequence diversity apparently is due to independent evolutionary origins and unusual evolutionary constraints. Thus coelenterazine-based bioluminescent systems may also manifest a variety of useful properties. We discuss form this taxonomic perspective the initial biochemical and spectral characterization of our cloned proteins. Emphasis is placed on the anthozoan luciferase-GFP systems, whose efficient resonance energy transfer has elicited much current interest.

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