Unusual Spectroscopic and Electric Field Sensitivity of Chromophores with Short Hydrogen Bonds: GFP and PYP as Model Systems.

ABSTRACT: Short hydrogen bonds, with heavy-atom distances less than 2.7 Å, are believed to exhibit proton delocalization, and their possible role in catalysis has been widely debated. While spectroscopic and/or structural methods are usually employed to study the degree of proton delocalization, ambiguities still arise, and no direct information on the corresponding potential energy surface is obtained. Here, we apply an external electric field to perturb the short hydrogen bond(s) within a collection of green fluorescent protein S65T/H148D variants and photoactive yellow protein mutants, where the chromophore participates in the short hydrogen bond(s) and serves as an optical probe of the proton position. As the proton is charged, its position may shift in response to the external electric field, a

SUBMITTER: Lin CY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8549526 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature