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Elucidation of the mechanism of blue-light reception by vibrational spectroscopy

Subject Area Biophysics
Term from 2004 to 2012
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5470629
 
Final Report Year 2012

Final Report Abstract

The mechanism of three different families of flavin-containing blue light receptors were investigated by vibrational spectroscopy. The photoreactions of light-, oxygen-, or voltage-sensitive (LOV) domains from algal and higher plant phototropin and bacterial YtvA were characterized in detail, revealing differences in structure of the reactive cysteine forming a covalent adduct. Signal propagation was studied in full-length YtvA and full-length phototropin, demonstrating that the output domains respond by changes in secondary structure to illumination of the LOV domains. The impact of the chromophore composition of the blue light using flavin (BLUF) domain was analyzed to resolve the impact of the different moieties of the chromophore with respect to their functional significance. Step-scan Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy with microsecond time resolution was conducted on LOV and BLUF domains, resolving central aspects of signalling state formation and of the concomitant secondary structural changes. Responses of plant cryptochrome to blue light were studied showing the step-wise formation of the signalling state, a flavin neutral radical, by electron transfer and proton transfer. The proton donor was resolved and assigned by infrared spectroscopy. A study on insect cryptochrome highlighted the differences in mechanism to the plant cryptochromes. Taken together, the overview obtained about the different flavin-based sensors demonstrated a much greater variation in the fundamental steps of signalling induced by blue-light illumination of protein-bound flavin as compared to other biological light sensors.

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