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Human Osteosarcoma Cells with mEmerald-α-Actinin and mCherry-Farnesyl

First discovered in Japan in the early 1980s, it was established that several fungi peptides (short protein fragments) contained a farnesyl group. By 1990, a University of Washington team had recognized the farnesyl group in the lamin B protein, which is a component of the membrane that surrounds the cell nucleus and provides structure to the nuclear membrane - this finding proved farnesyl groups exist in animal cells. Human osteosarcoma cells (U-2 line) are visualized in this digital video sequence expressing mCherry fused to proteins containing farnesyl groups.

A member of the mFruit series of monomeric fluorescent proteins, mCherry was developed through the directed evolution of mRFP1. Peak excitation and emission of mCherry take place at 587 and 610 nanometers, respectively. The green fluorescent protein mEmerald is one of the many variants of the enhanced Aequorea derivative EGFP. Excitation of mEmerald peaks at 487 nanometers and emission peaks at 509 nanometers.