{"id":1340,"date":"2019-01-28T22:59:28","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T05:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/?p=1340"},"modified":"2019-02-25T22:37:52","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T05:37:52","slug":"who-wants-a-glowing-pet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/2019\/01\/28\/who-wants-a-glowing-pet\/","title":{"rendered":"Who wants a glowing pet?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>What is GFP?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1459\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1459\" class=\"wp-image-1459 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/files\/2019\/01\/10-10-683x1024-1-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/files\/2019\/01\/10-10-683x1024-1-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/files\/2019\/01\/10-10-683x1024-1.jpg 683w, https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/files\/2019\/01\/10-10-683x1024-1-534x800.jpg 534w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1459\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jellyfish Aequorea Victoria, which exhibits a green fluorescence when exposed to light. Source Microbiologics Blog, https:\/\/blog.microbiologics.com\/green-fluorescent-proteins-shining-new-light-on-food-qc\/<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Green fluorescent protein (GFP) is a naturally occurring protein found in jellyfish <em>Aequorea Victoria<\/em>, which exhibits a green fluorescence when exposed to light. \u00a0This fluorescent protein has transformed biomedical research because cellular biological processes can now be observed in real time.\u00a0This protein is located in the jellyfish\u2019s umbrella where it <a href=\"https:\/\/embryo.asu.edu\/pages\/green-fluorescent-protein\">interacts with another protein called aequorin<\/a>. This specific interaction between GFP and aequorin emits blue light when calcium ions are added. Furthermore, this chemical reaction supplies the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thoughtco.com\/green-fluorescent-protein-facts-4153062\">energy to produce the green fluorescence<\/a>.\u00a0 GFP consists of 238 amino acids however, the 65<sup>th<\/sup>to 67<sup>th<\/sup>amino acids form the core structure responsible for emitting the green fluorescence when exposed to light.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Green Fluorescent Protein | What is this Thing?!\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/d-gUPSVX25U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">This video describes the main components and uses of GFP in biomedical research. Source Alex Dainis, Science Vlogger and Genetics Grad Student.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why is GFP important?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>GFP itself is non-toxic, stable and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/16752-gfp-protein-fluorescent-nih-nigms.html\">spontaneously conforms into its functional shape<\/a> without the need for outside chemicals or enzymes. Also, GFP doesn\u2019t interfere with any of the biological processes within an organism.\u00a0 Therefore, GFP is being used as a visual marker in biomedical research. After, GFP is injected into a cell the green fluorescence glow is observed using a fluorescence microscope. This fluorescence microscope is able to photograph the cellular biological processes without interfering.<\/p>\n<p>For example, in <a href=\"https:\/\/embryo.asu.edu\/pages\/green-fluorescent-protein\">recombinant technology<\/a>, the GFP gene is combined with a gene of interest, which produces the protein of interest. Then this complex is injected into a cell and if the cell produces the green fluorescent glow it suggests the cell is expressing the gene of interest. Scientists added this harmless fluorescent gene into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC4430605\/\">insulin producing cells in the pancreas of mice<\/a>. The researchers were able to observe the biological process and reform existing diabetes treatments.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How is GFP relevant to us?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Companies such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thoughtco.com\/green-fluorescent-protein-facts-4153062\">Yorktown technologies<\/a> were the first to start selling fluorescent pet zebrafish called GloFish. Also, the <a href=\"https:\/\/theweek.com\/articles\/464980\/7-genetically-modified-animals-that-glow-dark\">Animal Reproductive Institute of Uruguay<\/a> produced a glowing green sheep using the GFP gene that was injected into the sheep embryo. Furthermore, a research team in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/dn17003-fluorescent-puppy-is-worlds-first-transgenic-dog\/\">Seoul National University<\/a> injected beagle dog embryos with a similar fluorescent protein obtained from a sea anemone. As a result four puppies would emit a red fluorescent glow under ultraviolet light. This GFP gene has been injected into other animals too such as cows, pigs, bunnies, monkeys, cats, and rats.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Science Creates Glowing Kittens, Monkeys and Sheep!\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eCPtDVnaQ1w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">This video describes how GFP can cause animals to be\u00a0bioluminescent . Source Seeker.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, GFP has not only transformed biomedical research in the terms of being able to observe how cancer spreads, HIV infections proceed, \u00a0fetuses grow during development and other various biological processes occur but also, allowed scientists to create glow in the dark pets.<\/p>\n<p>Now, who wouldn\u2019t want a glowing green pet!<\/p>\n<p>Sabrina Cheema<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is GFP?\u00a0 Green fluorescent protein (GFP) is a naturally occurring protein found in jellyfish Aequorea Victoria, which exhibits a green fluorescence when exposed to light. \u00a0This fluorescent protein has transformed biomedical research because cellular biological processes can now be &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/2019\/01\/28\/who-wants-a-glowing-pet\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63791,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132756,222578,132763,123324],"tags":[1509,2992,132792,293,672824,196],"class_list":["post-1340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biological-sciences","category-issues-in-science","category-public-engagement","category-science-in-the-news","tag-biochemistry","tag-biology","tag-cancer-research","tag-dna","tag-medical-sciences","tag-medicine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63791"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1340"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1474,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340\/revisions\/1474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicatingscience2019w210\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}