( fish Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP). T...)Revolutionary nanotechnology illuminates brain cells at work

fish Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP). The colored tags are placed at each end of the molecule making a "biosensor." When the substance of interest binds to the sensor, the sensor backbone becomes reoriented, and the reorientation can be detected. Since light is a vibration, the same response occurs with two fluorescent dyes that have overlapping, but slightly different colors–in this case cyan and yellow versions of GFP. The cyan is excited and, if the distance between the colored proteins changes, more or less energy is transferred to the yellow protein. In this study, the cyan and yellow proteins behave as if they move away from one another when the sensor recognizes glutamate. Thus, there is more cyan and less yellow light than in the absence of glutamate. The sensors are encoded by genes and genetic ZIP codes can be used to target the sensors to any location in the cell and to its surface.

"We used a protein called ybeJ from the common bacterium E. coli. We first predicted the structure of this protein, and then placed the two fluorophores at specific positions on the binding protein," commented co-author Loren Looger. "After fusion to the fluorescent proteins, we placed the sensor on the surface of rat hippocampal cells. The hippocampus is the part of the brain that is involved with emotional reactions, and it helps store learned information in memory. When neurons are activated, they secrete glutamate, and we could see this activity under the microscope by watching the color change. We stimulated the neurons and watched them secrete glutamate in response. We also saw the removal of the glutamate as the neurons returned to normal ready to fire again."

"This is a tremendously exciting technology," remarked Wolf Frommer, leader of the FRET team at Carnegie. "I'm anxious to see what we can learn about the vast complexities of the brain over the coming years, such as the role of glial cells in the process of glutamate removal from the synaptic cleft
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Source:Carnegie Institution

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