It's cheap to be colorful

Pigments homologous to the green fluorescent protein (GFP) contribute up to ∼ 14% of the soluble protein content of many anthozoans. Maintenance of such high tissue levels poses a severe energetic penalty to the animals if protein turnover is fast. To address this as yet unexplored issue, we established that the irreversible green‐to‐red conversion of the GFP‐like pigments from the reef corals Montastrea cavernosa (mcavRFP) and Lobophyllia hemprichii (EosFP) is driven by violet–blue radiation in vivo and in situ. In the absence of photoconverting light, we subsequently tracked degradation of the red‐converted forms of the two proteins in coral tissue using in vivo spectroscopy and immunochemical detection of the post‐translational peptide backbone modification. The pigments displayed surprisingly slow decay rates, characterized by half‐lives of ∼ 20 days. The slow turnover of GFP‐like proteins implies that the associated energetic costs for being colorful are comparatively low. Moreover, high in vivo stability makes GFP‐like proteins suitable for functions requiring high pigment concentrations, such as photoprotection.