Illuminating Cellular Organelles: Packard's CytoGem(TM) Fusion and Organelle Targeting System for Intracellular Localization

Packard CytoGem localization of cellular peroxisomes and nuclei.

Green fluorescent protein (GFP) has been busy in the 1990s, having been removed from the jellyfish Aequora victoria and transfected into just about every type of cell possible. Since the first such application of GFP was reported (M. Chalfie et al., Science, 263:802-5, 1994), new uses for this workhorse have arisen on a regular basis.

One of the latest developments of GFP technology is found in Packard Instrument Company's collection of organelle-targeted sapphire-blue CytoGems. Different organelle targeting signals have been subcloned in pGFPsph-N or pGFPsph-C vectors. These organelle-targeting sequences guide the sapphire-blue protein to a single organelle in mammalian cells; the six possible cell-targeting sites are mitochondria, nucleus, peroxysome, cytoplasm, plasma membrane, and endoplasmic reticulum.

Erik Joly, group leader at BioSignal Inc. (Montreal, Quebec), thinks the organelle-targeting vectors will be a welcome sight for researchers performing subcellular colocalization studies (Biosignal...