FACS-optimized mutants of the green fluorescent protein (GFP)
Key findings
Introduced the F64L/S65T double mutation creating EGFP. These mutations shift excitation peak to 488 nm (compatible with argon-ion lasers) and increase fluorescence intensity ~35-fold over wild-type GFP. EGFP became the de facto standard GFP variant for mammalian cell imaging.