I was reading this paper and accidentally came across my new friend, the sea pansy derived GFP. A couple of fusion protein reporters, this time: Npy-hrGFP and POMC-hrGFP. hr here stands for humanized renilla. The researchers who generated these transgenic mice claimed that “the hrGFP expressed from this transgene is more stable and resistant to signal fading compared to other GFP’s”. This is an interesting note and probably true because the eGFP version for both transgenes were available beforehand. A stable signal is definitely important for accurate cell counting, neuronal tracing, optogenetics and all imaging methods.
Just a bit more search on this. Some reports, here and here, claimed that hrGFP is less toxic than regular GFP when expressed in vivo. The evidence is not substantial. And who knows if a humanized version of the aqua GFP is even safer?
历史上的今天：
2012年2月6日 时光倒流七十年