Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 4, 2026

Red fluorescent protein

Red fluorescent protein (RFP) is a protein which acts as a fluorophore, fluorescing red-orange when excited. The original variant occurs naturally in the coral genus Discosoma, and is named DsRed. Several new variants have been developed using directed mutagenesis which fluoresce orange, red, and far-red.

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Red fluorescent protein drFP583
Identifiers
OrganismDiscosoma sp.
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UniProtQ9U6Y8
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StructuresSwiss-model
DomainsInterPro
Bioluminescence response to local Ca2+
 after intraperitoneal injection of recombinant tdTA in an anesthetized mouse. An overlay of the mouse reflection image (grayscale) and Ca2+
-induced bioluminescence (red pseudocolor) is shown.

Red fluorescent protein (RFP) is a protein which acts as a fluorophore, fluorescing red-orange when excited. The original variant occurs naturally in the coral genus Discosoma, and is named DsRed. Several new variants have been developed using directed mutagenesis1 which fluoresce orange, red, and far-red.2

Characteristics and properties

Like GFP and other fluorescent proteins, RFP is a barrel-shaped protein made primarily out of β-sheet motifs; this type of protein fold is commonly known as a β-barrel.

The mass of RFP is approximately 25.9 kDa. Its excitation maximum is 558 nm, and its emission maximum is 583 nm.3

Applications

RFP is frequently used in molecular biology research as a fluorescent marker, for a variety of purposes. DsRed has been shown to be more suitable for optical imaging approaches than EGFP.4

Issues with fluorescent proteins include the length of time between protein synthesis and expression of fluorescence. DsRed has a maturation time of around 24 hours,1 which renders it unsuited for experiments that take place over a shorter time frame. Additionally, DsRed exists in a tetrameric form, which can affect the function of proteins to which it is attached. Genetic engineering has improved the utility of RFP by increasing the speed of fluorescence development and creating monomeric variants.35 Improved variants of RFP include the mFruits variants (mCherry, mOrange, mRaspberry), mKO, TagRFP, mKate, mRuby, FusionRed, mScarlet and DsRed-Express.56

In contrast to many engineered monomeric red fluorescent proteins, tdTomato is derived from DsRed through directed evolution and is characterized by low acid sensitivity. Originating from Discosoma species, tdTomato is reported to be six times brighter than enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP), with excitation and emission peaks at 554 nm and 581 nm, respectively 7. Although it is a tandem dimer, tdTomato behaves as a functional monomer in fusion constructs. It is commonly used as an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) marker in various plant species for both transient and stable expression, and as a reporter gene to monitor gene expression, protein localization, and cell behavior 8.

Other fluorescent proteins

The first fluorescent protein to be discovered, green fluorescent protein (GFP), has been adapted to identify and develop fluorescent markers in other colors. Variants such as yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) and cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) were discovered in Anthozoa.5

See also

See also

References

References

  1. Bevis, Brooke J.; Glick, Benjamin S. (2002). "Rapidly maturing variants of the Discosoma red fluorescent protein (DsRed)". Nature Biotechnology. 20 (1): 83–87. doi:10.1038/nbt0102-83. ISSN 1546-1696. PMID 11753367. S2CID 20320166.
  2. Miyawaki, Atsushi; Shcherbakova, Daria M; Verkhusha, Vladislav V (October 2012). "Red fluorescent proteins: chromophore formation and cellular applications". Current Opinion in Structural Biology. 22 (5): 679–688. doi:10.1016/j.sbi.2012.09.002. ISSN 0959-440X. PMC 3737244. PMID 23000031.
  3. Remington, S. James (1 January 2002). "Negotiating the speed bumps to fluorescence". Nature Biotechnology. 20 (1): 28–29. doi:10.1038/nbt0102-28. PMID 11753356. S2CID 37021603.
  4. Böhm I, Gehrke S, Kleb B, Hungerbühler M, Müller R, Klose KJ, Alfke H (2019). "Monitoring of tumor burden in vivo by optical imaging in a xenograft SCID mouse model: evaluation of two fluorescent proteins of the GFP-superfamily". Acta Radiol. 60 (3): 315–326. doi:10.1177/0284185118780896. PMID 29890843. S2CID 48353442.
  5. Piatkevich, Kiryl D.; Verkhusha, Vladislav V. (2011). "Guide to Red Fluorescent Proteins and Biosensors for Flow Cytometry". Methods in Cell Biology. 102: 431–461. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-374912-3.00017-1. ISBN 9780123749123. ISSN 0091-679X. PMC 3987785. PMID 21704849.
  6. Bindels, Daphne S; Haarbosch, Lindsay (2017). "mScarlet: a bright monomeric red fluorescent protein for cellular imaging". Nature Methods. 14 (1): 53–56. doi:10.1038/nmeth.4074. ISSN 1548-7105. PMID 27869816. S2CID 3539874.
  7. Chishti, A. A., Hellweg, C. E., Berger, T., Baumstark-Khan, C., Feles, S., Kätzel, T., & Reitz, G. (2015). Constitutive expression of tdTomato protein as a cytotoxicity and proliferation marker for space radiation biology. Life Sciences in Space Research, 4, 35–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lssr.2014.12.005
  8. Nagano, M., Ueda, H., Yoichiro Fukao, Maki Kawai-Yamada, & Ikuko Hara-Nishimura. (2020). Generation of Arabidopsis lines with a red fluorescent marker for endoplasmic reticulum using a tail-anchored protein cytochrome b5-B. Plant Signaling & Behavior, 15(9), 1790196–1790196. https://doi.org/10.1080/15592324.2020.1790196
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