Improving the Fluorescent Probe Acridonylalanine Through a Combination of Theory and Experiment.

ABSTRACT: Acridonylalanine (Acd) is a useful fluorophore for studying proteins by fluorescence spectroscopy, but it can potentially be improved by being made longer wavelength or brighter. Here, we report the synthesis of Acd core derivatives and their photophysical characterization. We also performed ab initio calculations of the absorption and emission spectra of Acd derivatives, which agree well with experimental measurements. The amino acid aminoacridonylalanine (Aad) was synthesized in forms appropriate for genetic incorporation and peptide synthesis. We show that Aad is a superior FRET acceptor to Acd in a peptide cleavage assay, and that Aad can be activated by an aminoacyl tRNA synthetase for genetic incorporation. Together, these results show that we can use computation to design enh

SUBMITTER: Sungwienwong I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6454874 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature