Question

Provide a rough estimate of the molecular weight of the fluorophore part of GFP as a percentage of the GFP molecular weight: MWfluorophore ≈ __________________% of MWGFP   

Answer 1

Green Fluorescent Protein is a protein with its primary structure it has 239 aminoacids with 26.9kDa molecular weight.

Fluorophore of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) is formed by a tripeptide of serine, tyrosine and glycine at 65,66, and 67 positions respectively.

The average weight of an amino acid is 110 Daltons.

Now, fluorophore of GFP has 3 amino acids so 3 * 110 = 330Da.

MW flurophore  ≈ ___________ % of MWGFP

MW fluorophore= 330 Daltons

MW GFP= 26.9kDa= 26,900 Daltons

% = MW fluorophore / MW GFP * 100

= 330 Da / 26,900 Da * 100

= 0.0123 * 100

% = 1.23

MW fluorophore ≈ 1.23 % of MWGFP.