Recent progress in molecular engineering of genetically encoded probes whose spectral properties are controlled with light, such as photoactivatable, photoswitchable and reversibly switchable fluorescent proteins, has brought the new possibilities to bioimaging and super-resolution microscopy. The development of modern photoconvertible proteins is linked to the studies of light-induced chromoph...

Cyanobacteriochromes are linear tetrapyrrole-binding photoreceptors produced by cyanobacteria. Their chromophore-binding GAF domains categorized into many lineages. Among them, dual Cys-type cyanobacteriochrome possessing not only a highly conserved ‘first Cys' but also ‘second found from multiple The first Cys stably attaches to C31 of the A-ring, while second mostly shows reversible ligation ...

Red fluorescent proteins (RFPs) derived from organisms in the class Anthozoa have found widespread application as imaging tools in biological research. For most imaging experiments, RFPs that mature quickly to the red chromophore and produce little or no green chromophore are most useful. In this study, we used rational design to convert a yellow fluorescent mPlum mutant to a red-emitting RFP w...

The reversible binding of neocarzinostatin chromophore to polynucleotides was studied in order to understand the molecular basis of its base sequence-specificity in DNA damage production. Studies of the spectroscopic and thermodynamic properties of chromophore-polynucleotide interactions reveal that the binding of the chromophore to poly(dA-dT) is qualitatively and quantitatively different from...

Green fluorescent protein (GFP) and GFP-like fluorescent proteins owe their photophysical properties to an autocatalytically formed intrinsic chromophore. According to quantum mechanical calculations, the excited state of chromophore model systems has significant dihedral freedom, which may lead to fluorescence quenching intersystem crossing. Molecular dynamics simulations with freely rotating ...

Cyan fluorescent proteins (CFP) with tryptophan66-based chromophore are widely used for live cell imaging. In contrast to green and red fluorescent proteins, no charged states of the CFP chromophore have been described. Here, we studied synthetic CFP chromophore and found that its indole group can be deprotonated rather easily (pKa 12.4).We then reproduced this effect in the CFP mCerulean by pl...