Chemically modulating the photophysics of the GFP chromophore

Conyard, Jamie, Kondo, Minako, Heisler, Ismael, Jones, Garth, Baldridge, Anthony, Tolbert, Laren M., Solntsev, Kyril M. and Meech, Steve ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5561-2782 (2011) Chemically modulating the photophysics of the GFP chromophore. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 115 (6). pp. 1571-1577. ISSN 1520-5207

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

There is growing interest in engineering the properties of fluorescent proteins through modifications to the chromophore structure utilizing mutagenesis with either natural or unnatural amino acids. This entails an understanding of the photophysical and photochemical properties of the modified chromophore. In this work, a range of GFP chromophores with different alkyl substituents are synthesized and their electronic spectra, pH dependence, and ultrafast fluorescence decay kinetics are investigated. The weakly electron donating character of the alkyl substituents leads to dramatic red shifts in the electronic spectra of the anions, which are accompanied by increased fluorescence decay times. This high sensitivity of electronic structure to substitution is also characteristic of some fluorescent proteins. The solvent viscosity dependence of the decay kinetics are investigated, and found to be consistent with a bimodal radiationless relaxation coordinate. Some substituents are shown to distort the planar structure of the chromophore, which results in a blue shift in the electronic spectra and a strong enhancement of the radiationless decay. The significance of these data for the rational design of novel fluorescent proteins is discussed.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Chemistry
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Physical and Analytical Chemistry (former - to 2017) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Chemistry of Light and Energy Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Photonics and Quantum Science
Depositing User:	Rachel Smith
Date Deposited:	23 Mar 2011 12:44
Last Modified:	19 Aug 2023 01:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/27020
DOI:	10.1021/jp111593x

Actions (login required)

View Item