Communications Chemistry (Jan 2021)

Real-time observation of tetrapyrrole binding to an engineered bacterial phytochrome

  • Yusaku Hontani,
  • Mikhail Baloban,
  • Francisco Velazquez Escobar,
  • Swetta A. Jansen,
  • Daria M. Shcherbakova,
  • Jörn Weißenborn,
  • Miroslav Kloz,
  • Maria Andrea Mroginski,
  • Vladislav V. Verkhusha,
  • John T. M. Kennis

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42004-020-00437-3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

Read online

Near-infrared fluorescent proteins engineered from bacterial phytochromes are important for deep-tissue imaging in vivo, but the mechanism through which they bind to chromophores is not fully understood. Here the authors structurally analyze biliverdin binding to miRFP proteins using time-resolved stimulated Raman spectroscopy and quantum mechanical/molecular mechanics calculations.