tdTomato Fused to Human Light Chain Clathrin
Tandem dimer Tomato is a derivative of one of the "fruit" series of fluorescent proteins developed through the directed evolution of mRFP1. The brightest fluorescent protein reported to date, tdTomato exhibits an orange-red emission maximum at 581 nanometers and is easily detected even at very low light levels in live cell imaging studies. The digital image presented above demonstrates the localization of a fusion between tdTomato and human light chain clathrin, which is concentrated at clathrin coats (or baskets) found on the cytosolic surface of the plasma membrane and the trans face of the Golgi complex. Research suggests that clathrin coats are involved in the process of protein sorting and that a chaperone protein from the hsp70 family is key in their removal from budded vesicles.