Ultrafast action chemistry in slow motion: atomistic description of the excitation and fluorescence processes in an archetypal fluorescent protein

Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2018 Apr 25;20(16):11067-11080. doi: 10.1039/c8cp00371h.

Abstract

We report quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical non-adiabatic molecular dynamics simulations on the electronically excited state of green fluorescent protein mutant S65T/H148D. We examine the driving force of the ultrafast (τ < 50 fs) excited-state proton transfer unleashed by absorption in the A band at 415 nm and propose an atomistic description of the two dynamical regimes experimentally observed [Stoner Ma et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008, 130, 1227]. These regimes are explained in terms of two sets of successive dynamical events: first the proton transfers quickly from the chromophore to the acceptor Asp148. Thereafter, on a slower time scale, there are geometrical changes in the cavity of the chromophore that involve the distance between the chromophore and Asp148, the planarity of the excited-state chromophore, and the distance between the chromophore and Tyr145. We find two different non-radiative relaxation channels that are operative for structures in the reactant region and that can explain the mismatch between the decay of the emission of A* and the rise of the emission of I*, as well as the temperature dependence of the non-radiative decay rate.

MeSH terms

  • Aspartic Acid / chemistry
  • Fluorescence
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / chemistry*
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / radiation effects
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / ultrastructure
  • Models, Chemical
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Molecular Structure
  • Mutation
  • Protein Conformation
  • Protons
  • Quantum Theory
  • Spectrometry, Fluorescence
  • Tyrosine / chemistry
  • Vibration

Substances

  • Protons
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins
  • Aspartic Acid
  • Tyrosine