Hi Everyone,
Lena Simine, a post-doc with Peter Rossky, will be visiting Harvard on
Friday. She is giving a seminar in the division room from 10:30-11:30 am
Friday Juy 21st. Her work overlaps with our interests in a couple of
different spaces including studying pigment dynamics in a protein scaffold,
and predicting fluorescence quantum yield.
A few of us will be going out to lunch together (TANSTAAFL), please e-mail
me if you are interested in joining the group.
I look forward to seeing you all at the seminar!
Doran
eGFP-based motion sensor via electrostatic control of fluorescence
Lena Simine, Heiko Lammert, Jose N. Onuchic, and Peter J. Rossky
The rational design of genetically encoded fluorescent bio-sensors, which
detect rearrangements of target proteins via interdomain allostery, is
hindered by the absence of mechanistic understanding of the underlying
photo-physics. Here, we investigate the mechanism for electrostatic control
of fluorescence quantum yield in a model system: enhanced Green Fluorescent
Protein (eGFP), using a combination of molecular dynamics (MD) and quantum
chemistry simulations. Specifically, we uncover the mechanism of the
modulation of fluorescence brightness by mild mechanical
perturbations, and report
a map of fluorescence quantum yield as a function of a 2D electric field
imposed by the protein environment on the fluorophore; this map allows to
assess the relative brightness of GFP homologues, or different conformants
of thereof, directly from MD simulations. Our results are expected to
expedite the discovery and optimization of fluorescent bio-sensors, e.g.,
genetically encoded voltage indicators.
*Doran I. G. Bennett*
Harvard University, Department of Chemistry
CIFAR Postdoctoral Fellow
Bio-inspired Light Harvesting Program
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