mCherry Fused to Human Desmin
Desmin is a protein found only in muscle cells that polymerizes to form intermediate filaments. During the initial stages of development, desmin is expressed at low levels, while vimentin is expressed at high levels. Later during development after cell differentiation has occurred the reverse is true, with desmin being the primary intermediate filament protein present. mCherry was employed to label desmin in the digital image presented above. Similar to the other "mFruit" series of fluorescent proteins, mCherry was developed through a directed evolution approach applied to the first-generation monomeric red fluorescent protein, which was termed mRFP1. Peak excitation and emission wavelengths of mCherry are 587 nanometers and 610 nanometers, respectively.