Stark Spectroscopy of Lumichrome: A Possible Candidate for Stand-Off Detection of Bacterial Quorum Sensing.

ABSTRACT: Lumichrome (7,8-dimethylalloxazine, LC) is a natural photodegradation product and catabolite of flavin coenzymes. Although not a coenzyme itself, LC is used for biosignaling in plants and single-celled organisms, including quorum sensing in the formation of biofilms. The noninvasive detection of in vivo lumichrome would be useful for monitoring this signaling event. For molecules that undergo significant charge redistribution upon light excitation (e.g., intramolecular charge transfer), there are optical detection methods (e.g., second-harmonic generation) that would be well suited to this task. Here, we have used Stark spectroscopy to measure the extent and direction of charge redistribution in photoexcited LC. Stark and low-temperature absorption spectra were obtained at 77 K on LC in et

SUBMITTER: van Galen C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8714027 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature