Holiday Light Show - Proteins from a reef tank

[taricha]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone on the chem forum!
As a Christmas card of sorts, here's four of my favorite aesthetically pleasing fluorescent proteins from my reef tank (but they are in every other reef tank too).

The top beam is a green pen laser, and the bottom one is violet.

For those who may want to guess what they are, here's a natural light image and a hint.
One needed a special solvent. But the other 3 are just in water.

 

[blaxsun]

Very festive!

 

[Dan_P]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone on the chem forum!
As a Christmas card of sorts, here's four of my favorite aesthetically pleasing fluorescent proteins from my reef tank (but they are in every other reef tank too).

The top beam is a green pen laser, and the bottom one is violet.

For those who may want to guess what they are, here's a natural light image and a hint.
One needed a special solvent. But the other 3 are just in water.

I love chemistry themed Christmas cards!

Happy Holidays.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So cool! A perfect holiday post.

I'm guessing the second from the left is chlorophyll.

Wild guesses:
left most is: zoanYFP from zoanthids,
second from the right is DsRed from coralline and anemones
right most is green fluorescence protein, of which there are many variants in corals

 

[taricha]

Very nice! Nailed these.

I'm guessing the second from the left is chlorophyll.

Yep, chlorophyll A & B from Derbesia (GHA)

right most is green fluorescence protein, of which there are many variants in corals

for sure. This was from some overgrown Green Star Polyp. Amazing what hobby selection can do. Abundant green fluorescent protein, and so optically bright. I had to dilute it a whole bunch to not drown out everything else in the picture.

And close enough on this one.

...DsRed from coralline...

That's where I got the leftmost one. Coralline algae off of rubble gives up phycoerythrin into the water. R-PE (the phycoerythrin from red algae, which coralline is) has a similar absorption spectrum and almost identical emission as DSred. I was going to do red cyano for this pigment (C-PE, the version from cyano), but my tank doesn't have any cyano right now.


Left to right, 1 through 4 after freeze/thaw:
1: coral rubble releasing phycoerythrin in the water
2: GHA donating chlorophyll A & B in methanol
3: ?? in water
4: Green Star Polyp turning the water the color of a green highlighter with so much GFP

 

[brandon429]

wow thats amazing man. never have seen that before, the comparison visually of those factors.