Anti-mCherry Antibody

MCherry is an engineered derivative of one of a family of proteins originally isolated from Cnidarians (jelly fish, sea anemones and corals) . The mCherry protein was derived from DsRed, a red fluorescent protein from so-called disc corals of the genus Discosoma. DsRed is a 223 amino acid ~28 kDa protein similar in size and properties to GFP, but, obviously, produces a red rather than a green fluorochrome. The original DsRed was engineered extensively in the Tsien lab to prevent it from forming tetramers and dimers and to modify and improve the spectral properties (1-3) . The resulting monomeric protein is useful for applications such as Foerster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET, also known as Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer) . Several further cycles of mutation, directed modification and evolutionary selection produced mCherry, which is monomeric and has an excitation maximum at 587 nm and and emission maximum at 610 nm (4) .

Spin vial briefly before opening. Reconstitute with 100 μL sterile-filtered, ultrapure water to achieve a 1 mg/mL concentration. Centrifuge to remove any insoluble material. After reconstitution of lyophilized antibody, aliquot and store at -20°C for a higher stability. Avoid freeze-thaw cycles.

The antibody reacts with a band at ~28 kDa corresponding to intact full-length mCherry by Western blot on HEK293 cells transfected with mCherry vector. It has also been used successfully for immunocytochemistry.