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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 6, 2026

Live Imaging of GFP-labeled Proteins in Drosophila Oocytes

Live Imaging of GFP-labeled Proteins in Drosophila Oocytes

Published on: March 29, 2013

Protein stabilization with retained function of monellin using a split GFP system.

Tanja Weiffert¹, Sara Linse²

¹Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology, Chemical Centre, Lund University, SE221 00, Lund, Sweden. tanja.weiffert@biochemistry.lu.se.

Scientific Reports

|August 26, 2018

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers developed a novel screening method to enhance the stability of sweet proteins like monellin. This breakthrough could unlock their potential as non-carbohydrate sweeteners for the food industry.

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Area of Science:

Biochemistry
Protein Engineering
Food Science

Background:

Sweet proteins offer a non-carbohydrate sweetener alternative but often lack thermal stability.
Monellin, a known sweet protein, is limited in food applications due to heat sensitivity.

Purpose of the Study:

To engineer more heat-stable variants of the sweet protein monellin.
To develop an efficient screening method for identifying stable protein mutants.

Main Methods:

Utilized an in vivo screening approach linking protein fragment complementation to stability.
Employed a split green fluorescent protein (GFP) system to correlate fluorescence with monellin fragment affinity and stability.
Generated random mutant libraries for monellin chains and ranked clones by fluorescence intensity.

Main Results:

Identified specific monellin variants (S76Y, W3C+R39G) with significantly increased stability, confirmed by circular dichroism spectroscopy.
Demonstrated that increased fragment affinity correlated with enhanced protein stability and fluorescence.
The S76Y mutant retained its sweet taste, indicating functional preservation.

Conclusions:

The developed screening method effectively identifies sweet protein variants with enhanced stability.
Engineered monellin variants, particularly S76Y, show promise for use as stable, non-carbohydrate sweeteners in food products.