mCherry

Background of mCherry antibody

mCherry is an engineered derivative of one of a family of proteins originally isolated from Cnidarians (jelly fish, sea anemones and corals). The prototype for these fluorescent proteins is Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), which is a ~27kDa protein isolated originally from the jellyfish Aequoria victoria. GFP was the basis of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded to Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien, specifically "for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP". On expression from the GFP gene, GFP protein will fold correctly and fluoresce strongly, the development of fluoresence requires no cofactors except molecular oxygen. It can therefore be expressed in fluorescent form in essentially any prokaryotic or eukaryotic cell under aerobic conditions. As a result DNA encoding GFP can be fused to DNA encoding other proteins as a means to visualize the resulting fusion protein in live cells or animals. Engineered forms of GFP and relatives have been developed to monitor Calcium levels, protease activation and in a variety of other processes in real time. A whole range of GFP derivatives with different spectral properties have been developed, largely in the Tsien lab. The mCherry protein was derived from DsRed, a red fluorescent protein from so-called disc corals of the genus Discosoma. DsRed is a 223 amino acid ~28kDa protein similar in size and properties to GFP, but, obviously, produces a red rather than a green fluorochrome.