Extraction, purification and properties of Aequorin, a bioluminescent protein from the luminous hydromedusan, Aequorea.

Shimomura reported the discovery of green fluorescent protein (GFP) in a single footnote in this paper that was otherwise devoted to an entirely different bioluminescent protein: photoprotein aequorin. This may be the only time that the Nobel Prize was awarded for a discovery reported in a single footnote. Order of authorship in the original publication: Shimomura, Johnson, Saiga.

In 2008 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded jointly to Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien "for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP."

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)