bleaching, a major cause of reef decline. When coral reefs die, the ecosystem the reef supports and the biodiverse species they protect die along with it. In addition to concerns surrounding biodiversity, economic goods and services provided by corals, valued at over US $20 trillion annually, would be lost if the reefs were to disappear. Photoprotection is therefore a vital aspect of coral stress physiology. Corals produce a variety of fluorescent proteins (FPs), some of which screen the symbiotic algae from excess sun light, and others enhance light availability for photosynthesis of the algal symbionts by converting longer wavelengths of light into a more usable form of light for the dinoflagellates. Cyan FPs have characteristically broad absorption/excitation spectra with peaks at 440–460 nm that overlap with the absorption spectrum of photosynthetic pigments of the symbiotic dinoflagellates, making these FPs photoprotective. The question arises about whether the thermodynamic stability of these cyan FPs are related to reef decline. To determine the thermodynamic stability of a cyan FPs, the CFP from Anemonia majano was cloned into an E. coli expression vector with an 6x His affinity tag. The 6xHis-CFP was overexpressed and purified from E. coli. Thermal and chemical denaturation curves of this protein were monitored using intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence. Additionally, we seek to understand which interactions within the protein are have the greatest impact on the protein’s stability. Mutagenesis studies were performed to determine which factors within the protein are most responsible for stability.

Investigation of the chemical and thermal stability of the coral cyan fluorescent protein from Anemonia majano

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.