Team:TU Darmstadt/Basic Part
BASIC PART
mVenus - BBa_K1976002
Figure 1: Cyrstal structure of the mVenus reporter protein without the LVA degradation tag. Yellow: β−barrel fold enclosing the fluorophore. Created with the PyMOL Molecular Graphic System. PDB entry, Rekas et al. 2002 .In some cases a fast signaling reporter, as well as a fast decay of the said reporter is necessary to create a specific genetic circuit. One of the best fitting reporters might be the E.coli optimized version of mVenus. With an average maturation time of 40 min in vitro it is faster than GFP.
In order to prevent a persistent fluorescence after the expression of the reporter stopped, mVenus is expressed with a LVA degradation tag to decrease the protein half-life. Another positive aspect of mVenus is the lowered sensitivity towards pH and chloride ion concentration, one of the drawbacks of wild-type GFP. The lack of disulfide bonds enables fluorescence under reductive conditions. Moreover, the reporter is not regulated by any proteins, cofactors or substrates. Therefore mVenus does not only expand the spectrum of fluorescence proteins in the registry, it also is a good alternative for various genetic circuits.
