GFP

Eleven strands make a can. One helix runs up the middle, and three of its residues turn themselves into a dye. Nothing is added: the protein builds its own chromophore and then holds it still.

the jellyfish protein

one residue, another colour

what you are looking at

fold
span
modelled
completeness
helix / strand
chromophore
made from
substitutions declared
phenol O to Thr203
phenol O to His148
Glu222 to Ser205
biological unit
brought by the crystal
extents Å
frame

Both are fluorescent and both are engineered: each carries Q80R, so neither is strictly the wild-type protein. What changes the colour is the made from row, read off the atoms rather than off the sequence records — Y66H sits inside the fused chromophore residue, where SEQADV does not report it.

The blue variant is superposed on 1GFL by its α-carbons, so flipping between them moves only what actually moved. Both are the same protein under the same numbering.

Ribbon colour is secondary structure, the repo default. The ball-and-stick inside is the chromophore and the five side chains around it — Arg96 and Glu222 below, His148, Thr203 and Ser205 on the phenol end. Chain A's, in both views.

Turn the molecule, click copy, then paste into view.basis in proteins.js with by: 'human'.

RCSB entry deposited .pdb what this page loads