Red-shifted Renilla reniformis luciferase variants for imaging in living subjects

• Published in: Nature methods Vol. 4; no. 8; pp. 641 - 643
• Main Authors: Loening, Andreas Markus, Wu, Anna M, Gambhir, Sanjiv Sam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.08.2007; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Animals; Bioinformatics; Biological Microscopy; Biological Techniques; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedical Engineering/Biotechnology; brief-communication; Color; Emission spectroscopy; Genetic variation; Genetics; Humans; Life Sciences; Light; Luciferase; Luciferases, Renilla - genetics; Luciferases, Renilla - metabolism; Luminescence; Marine; Mice; Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; Proteomics; Renilla - enzymology; Renilla reniformis; Research methodology; Scientific imaging; Wavelengths; United States

The use of R. reniformis luciferase (RLuc) as a reporter gene in small-animal imaging has been hampered by its 481 nm peaked emission spectrum, as blue wavelengths are strongly attenuated in biological tissues. To overcome this, we generated variants of RLuc with bathochromic (red) shifts of up to 6...