Dronpa is a reversibly switchable photoactivatable fluorescent protein that is 2.5 times as bright as EGFP.
A tetrameric,[4] reversibly switchable fluorescent protein was discovered in a cDNA screen of a stony coral (Pectiniidae).
A monomeric variant of this protein was named "Dronpa" after "Dron" a ninja term for vanishing and pa for photoactivation.
Several other residues in the vicinity of the chromophore also move during the on-off transition resulting a very different electrostatic environment.
[5] Dronpa's fast dynamics and stability under repeated cycles of switching make it one of the more important switchable fluorescent proteins.