Title: The Use of Aequorin and Its Variants for Ca<sup>2+</sup> Measurements
Abstract: Ca 2+ -sensitive photoproteins are ideal agents for measuring the Ca 2+ concentration ([Ca 2+ ]) in intracellular organelles because they can be modified to include specific targeting sequences. Aequorin was the first Ca 2+ -sensitive photoprotein probe used to measure the [Ca 2+ ] inside specific intracellular organelles in intact cells. Aequorin is a 22-kDa protein produced by the jellyfish Aequorea victoria . On the binding of Ca 2+ to three high-affinity sites in aequorin, an irreversible reaction occurs in which the prosthetic group is released and a photon is emitted. Aequorin has become widely used for intracellular Ca 2+ measurements because it offers many advantages: For example, it can be targeted with precision, functions over a wide range of [Ca 2+ ], and shows low buffering capacity. In this article we describe the main characteristics of the aequorin probe and review the reasons why it is widely used to measure intracellular [Ca 2+ ].
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-12-26
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
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Cited By Count: 17
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