THE CHROMOPHORE

238 amino acids. 1 autocatalytic reaction. Light.

Created from Green fluorescent protein A protein from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria that glows bright green under UV light. Three amino acids auto-catalytically form a chromophore at the barrel's center — the protein folds itself into fluorescence. Single point mutations shift the emission across the entire visible spectrum. In 2008, Shimomura, Chalfie, and Tsien shared the Nobel Prize for turning this jellyfish glow into biology's most important tool for making the invisible visible.