Red fluorescent protein TurboRFP

- Superbright red (orange) fluorescence
- Fast maturation
- Destabilized version is available
- Recommended for gene expression analysis, cell and organelle labeling

Available variants and fusions

TurboRFP codon usage is optimized for high expression in mammalian cells [Haas et al., 1996], but it can be successfully expressed in many other heterological systems.

TurboRFP-mito fusion: A mitochondrial targeting sequence (MTS) is linked to the TurboRFP N-terminus. MTS was derived from the subunit VIII of human cytochrome C oxidase [Rizzuto et al., 1989; Rizzuto et al., 1995]. When expressed in mammalian cells, this variant provides red fluorescent labeling of mitochondria.

Destabilized TurboRFP variant (TurboRFP-dest1): TurboRFP-dest1 is produced by fusing the initial protein with PEST amino acid sequence encoded by region 422-461 of mouse ornithine decarboxylase gene [Li et al., 1998]. This sequence targets the protein to degradation and enables a rapid protein turnover. TurboRFP-dest1 retains spectral properties of the initial protein, but has shorter half-life (approximately 1-2 hrs) as measured by the analysis of fluorescence intensity of cells treated with a protein synthesis inhibitor, cycloheximide. Because of rapid turnover, TurboRFP-dest1 can be used to measure changes in gene expression.