The disclosure provides proteins that can be used to determine the redox status
of an environment (such as the environment within a cell or subcellular compartment).
These proteins are green fluorescent protein (GFP) variants (also referred to as
redox sensitive GFP (rosGFP) mutants), which have been engineered to have two cysteine
amino acids near the chromophore and within disulfide bonding distance of each
other. Also provided are nucleic acid molecules that encode rosGFPs, vectors containing
such encoding molecules, and cells transformed therewith. The disclosure further
provides methods of using the rosGFPs (and encoding molecules) to analyze the redox
status of an environment, such as a cell, or a subcellular compartment within a
cell. In certain embodiments, both redox status and pH are analyzed concurrently.