Help:Reporters

Biology Background

All of our reporter genes encode for fluorescent proteins (FP's). These fluorescent proteins are derived from two different families of proteins: the Aeqoria Victoria jellyfish, which produces a wild-type GFP, and the Discosoma corals, which (after heavy modification) produces a monomeric RFP (mRFP).
Common abbreviations include:
RFP = red flourescent protein
CFP = cyan flourescent protein
GFP = green flourescent protein
YFP = yellow flourescent protein

Subtypes

The Registry's reporter parts are further subdivided into the following classifications based on their

Reporter Coding Regions

These are actually parts which code for reporter proteins. On their own, these parts are NOT capable of expressing these proteins. In order to express the reporter parts listed here, you will need an additional regulatory region and a ribosome binding site preceeding this coding part.

Constituitive Reporters

These are full composite parts incorporating the Reporter Coding Region parts under constitutive regulatory parts. These are devices which are capable of expressing proteins on their own.

Examples of Constitutive Reporter bricks include:

Part:BBa_I13521 - A constitutively on RFP coding sequence. This particular brick is also useful because it can be inactivated by the addition of tetracycline to the system.

Inducible Reporters

The opposite of constiutive parts are called "inducible" parts, because they need the addition of a chemical or protein in order to turn on their regulatory regions.

Quantification

You can find estimates of excitation wavelengths for various fluorescent proteins here.

Links

For more on our fluorescent protein parts, see the featured flourescent parts