Rabbit Kidney Cells with mEmerald-Plastin and mApple-Paxillin
The signal transduction adaptor protein Paxillin contains a C-terminal region with 4 LIM domains that target paxillin to focal adhesions through a direct relationship with the cytoplasmic tail of beta-integrin. The N-terminal area of paxillin is full of protein-to-protein interaction sites. The diverse proteins that bind to paxillin include protein tyrosine kinases, such as Src, structural proteins, such as vinculin, and regulators of actin organization. The cultured rabbit kidney epithelial cells (RK-13 line) featured in the digital video presented in this section were fluorescently labeled with mEmerald fused to plastin and mApple fused to paxillin.
An enhanced variant of EGFP, mEmerald is bright and photostable. The peak excitation and emission wavelengths for mEmerald are 487 and 509 nanometers, respectively. mApple is a red fluorescent protein from the mFruit series of fluorescent proteins derived from mRFP1 using a directed evolution approach. mApple matures rapidly and is bright and photostable. Excitation and emission of mApple peak at 568 and 592 nanometers, respectively.