Biology Essay Sample about Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)
The green fluorescent protein, generally known as GFP, was the major focus of this scientific investigation. The green fluorescent protein of the jellyfish Aequorea victoria has the ability to preserve its fluorescent features when combined with living eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells, according to this research. The GFP of Aequorea victoria has been used to study the ability to mark specific genes in a cell. It is a marker protein that is illuminated to allow visualization of the targeted area. The goal of this study was to figure out exactly what GFP could be used for and how it could help other fields of biology including molecular biology and physiological research. The relevance of this study is that GFP has the potential to apply in other investigations if it is possible to target all of the prospective applications for GFP. The use of luminescent proteins is a well-known technique that can bypass problems like polypeptide probing in living cells and heterologous reporter proteins. The GFP protein has been observed to retain its strong fluorescent signal. GFP is a powerful tool to monitor gene expression in different kinds of cells.
GFP is beneficial compared to other techniques due to the fact that it has fewer limitations. Because of the restricting factors imposed by synthetic dyes, the probes could only be used in a limited number of applications. There was also a challenge of visibility due to low light emission, but the cloning of this fluorescent protein has allowed this challenge to be overcome. GFP emits green light when there is ultraviolet or blue light. In mammalian cell lines, GFP can be expressed without compromising the fluorescent properties. The GFP was tested to see if its fluorescence varied in the mitochondria when the mitochondria were the target.
The staining of the mitochondria is compared for the GFP and the typical dye technique that was used before this new advancement. The GFP did not dim while the synthetic dye was significantly depleted at a fast rate. This allows for mitochondrial dynamics to be studied under conditions at altering the membrane potential because the GFP signal is independent of the membrane potential. Since energy plays an essential role in the shape of the mitochondria, it is critical not to use a substance that will impact the energy of the mitochondrial membrane.
There are many ways our knowledge of ways to use GFP has increased. The first improvement was to lighting. A lack of accessible light has been a limiting factor in studying cells. GFP can be used in gene expression research due to its ability to maintain its fluorescent signal in neutrons after particle-mediated transfection of brain slices with GFP DNA. It can go as specific as to certain organelles without changing the fluorescent properties. Long-term investigations involving a mitochondrial structure in living cells might benefit greatly from this research. Using this method instead of dyes allows for the mitochondria to not be affected by energy transfer. The development of the GFP marker protein is also important because it allows for naturally occurring light that allows particular proteins and organelles in cells to be studied. GFP has become an essential tool in modern biology. It can be used to study protein function and its light emission properties can be used to monitor cellular processes. The ability to examine specific individual proteins provides the potential to detect mutations that are disease-causing genetic alterations. Understanding the mutations could help when developing treatments. Studying GFP in the cells is only the beginning because it gives hope that this technique could be done in vivo in other cell structures. Studying living cells brings about the opportunity to grow knowledge on long-term physiological processes and the advancement of the medical field.
This research connects to our class because this is an example of studying a simple cell in order to benefit future studies of more complex organisms. The techniques are displayed in eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells which shows the wide variety of options of where this marker protein could be beneficial. This is relatable to yeast that is studied in order to help with cancer research. Another example would be how Arabidopsis thaliana is a model organism for plants and can be used to study plant diseases. Model organisms are organisms that can be studied often in the place of other organisms that they are similar enough to. Model organisms are used because they tend to be easier to grow instead of using something dangerous. If cells are similar enough they are able to take the information and generalize it amongst genetically similar cells. Understanding the similarities amongst organisms is important because this study could be run on any genetically similar cell to those discussed in this case study. It will be extremely advantageous to apply this information and research to other organisms.
