However, Lukyanov wanted a brighter, deep red hue. For this color, his research team cruised the seas—from the Mediterranean and Red Sea to the Gulf of Mexico. Had he found his treasure closer to home in a Moscow pet store?

Maybe. Maybe not. The anemone was promised to another customer. Undeterred, Lukyanov haggled for two hours with the store employee, who eventually went to the manager. When the manager recognized Lukyanov as a regular customer, he relented and let him buy the anemone.

Back in the laboratory, Lukyanov and his team isolated the red protein from the anemone and created an enhanced version called turbo red fluorescent protein (TurboRFP). It lit up brighter and faster than all other proteins they had created so far. They derived several subtypes of the protein as well, all bearing different deep-red tones. Lukyanov's postdoc, Ekaterina Merzlyak, who worked on the strenuous 6-month project that involved isolating, sequencing, and modifying the protein, received the honor of putting her name on one subtype. They dubbed it Katushka, a Russian child nickname for “Kate.”

With a whole rainbow of colors now available, Lukyanov concedes, “I think we can stop searching in new animals.”

As for the fate of the pet-store anemone—only part of one tentacle was needed to extract the protein. The animal currently resides in one of Lukyanov's aquariums, at home with other anemones, coral polyps, and several marine fish.

Photo: Ekaterina Bogdanova

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