Orientations and water dynamics of photoinduced secondary charge-separated states for magnetoreception by cryptochrome.

ABSTRACT: In the biological magnetic compass, blue-light photoreceptor protein of cryptochrome is thought to conduct the sensing of the Earth's magnetic field by photoinduced sequential long-range charge-separation (CS) through a cascade of tryptophan residues, W_A(H), W_B(H) and W_C(H). Mechanism of generating the weak-field sensitive radical pair (RP) is poorly understood because geometries, electronic couplings and their modulations by molecular motion have not been investigated in the secondary CS states generated prior to the terminal RP states. In this study, water dynamics control of the electronic coupling is revealed to be a key concept for sensing the direction of weak magnetic field. Geometry and exchange coupling (singlet-triplet energy gap: 2J) of photoindu

SUBMITTER: Hamada M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9814139 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature