Novel fluorescent protein from Discosoma coral and its mutants possesses a unique far-red fluorescence

A novel gene for advanced red-shifted protein with an emission maximum at 593 nm was cloned from Discosoma coral. The protein, named dsFP593, is highly homologous to the recently described GFP-like protein drFP583 with an emission maximum at 583 nm. Using the remarkable similarity of the drFP583 and dsFP593 genes, we performed a 'shuffling' procedure to generate a pool of mutants consisting of various combinations of parts of both genes. One 'hybrid gene' was chosen for subsequent random mutagenesis, which resulted in a mutant variant with a uniquely red-shifted emission maximum at 616 nm.