Nature Research, Nature Methods, 2(7), p. 137-139, 2010
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1415
Full text: Download
Optimization of autofluorescent proteins by intensity-based screening of bacteria does not necessarily identify the brightest variant for eukaryotes. We report a strategy to screen excited state lifetimes, which identified cyan fluorescent proteins with long fluorescence lifetimes (>3.7 ns) and high quantum yields (>0.8). One variant, mTurquoise, was 1.5-fold brighter than mCerulean in mammalian cells and decayed mono-exponentially, making it an excellent fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) donor.