Finding out where specific RNA molecules are located in a cell just got a whole lot easier. Green fluorescent protein (GFP), makes protein localization in living cells, or even in whole animals, as simple as cloning a gene. But until now, there wasn’t an equivalent for RNA.
The number of noncoding RNA types known to biologists (such as transfer-, small nucleolar-, and microRNAs) has increased in recent years, and many of them have “completely mysterious” functions, says Samie Jaffrey at Weill Medical College, Cornell University. So he devised a way of directly labeling RNA with a fluorescent tag.
Jaffrey designed synthetic versions of the fluorescent moiety of GFP, called HBI, which is much smaller than the complete protein. Then, using a kind of in vitro evolution, he selected for RNA molecules that could bind the GFP-like fluorophores with high affinity and cause the complex to fluoresce when illuminated. A...
| STATS TALK | |||||
| Comparing Methods: | MACROMOLECULE | SIZE | PHOTO-BLEACHING | QUANTUM YIELD | MATERIAL REQUIRED |
| GFP | protein | 238 amino acids | yes | 0.79 | expressed gene |
| Spinach | RNA | 80 nucleotides | no | 0.72 | expressed gene + synthetic fluorophore in culture medium |
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