Your friend, Sue, has joined a lab on campus that uses green fluorescent protein
ID: 72557 • Letter: Y
Question
Your friend, Sue, has joined a lab on campus that uses green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a tool to localize globular proteins to specific compartments in the cell. Sue creates a fusion protein by fusing GFP to her protein of interest, examines the fusion protein’s localization in the cell, and finds that it is localized to the plasma membrane. However, your friend, Bob, points out that the theoretical limit of resolution for a light microscope is just under 0.2 m and most globular proteins are in the 10 nm (0.01 m) size range and that lipid bilayers are about 5 nm (0.005 m) thick. Given that what Bob says is true, explain why Sue can see her globular protein localized at the plasma membrane.
Explanation / Answer
Not very sure but let me clarify may be correct i feel
GFP fusion protein is seems to be a membrane protein. Regardless of what bobby thinks and if true also, Sue would be seeing the protein localized at the plasma membranejust because GFP lights up. The lightening basically would depend upon the contrast of the outer layer of the cell and the amount of GFP present at the site. So that way sue will have no problem examining protein localization.
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