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1. Targeting Ultrafast Spectroscopic Insights into Red Fluorescent Proteins

   https://doi.org/10.1002/asia.202300668  

   Krueger, Taylor D. ; Chen, Cheng ; Fang, Chong ( October 2023 , Chemistry – An Asian Journal)

   Red fluorescent proteins (RFPs) represent an increasingly popular class of genetically encodable bioprobes and biomarkers that can advance next‐generation breakthroughs across the imaging and life sciences. Since the rational design of RFPs with improved functions or enhanced versatility requires a mechanistic understanding of their working mechanisms, while fluorescence is intrinsically an ultrafast event, a suitable toolset involving steady‐state and time‐resolved spectroscopic techniques has become powerful in delineating key structural features and dynamic steps which govern irreversible photoconverting or reversible photoswitching RFPs, and large Stokes shift (LSS)RFPs. The pertinentcis‐transisomerization and protonation state change of RFP chromophores in their local environments, involving key residues in protein matrices, lead to rich and complicated spectral features across multiple timescales. In particular, ultrafast excited‐state proton transfer in various LSSRFPs showcases the resolving power of wavelength‐tunable femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) in mapping a photocycle with crucial knowledge about the red‐emitting species. Moreover, recent progress in noncanonical RFPs with a site‐specifically modified chromophore provides an appealing route for efficient engineering of redder and brighter RFPs, highly desirable for bioimaging. Such an effective feedback loop involving physical chemists, protein engineers, and biomedical microscopists will enable future successes to expand fundamental knowledge and improve human health.

    

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2. Mapping the Complete Photocycle that Powers a Large Stokes Shift Red Fluorescent Protein

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.202212209  

   Wang, Ziyu ; Zhang, Ya ; Chen, Cheng ; Zhu, Ruixue ; Jiang, Jiaming ; Weng, Tsu‐Chien ; Ji, Quanjiang ; Huang, Yifan ; Fang, Chong ; Liu, Weimin ( December 2022 , Angewandte Chemie)

   Large Stokes shift (LSS) red fluorescent proteins (RFPs) are highly desirable for bioimaging advances. The RFP mKeima, with coexistingcis‐andtrans‐isomers, holds significance as an archetypal system for LSS emission due to excited‐state proton transfer (ESPT), yet the mechanisms remain elusive. We implemented femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) and various time‐resolved electronic spectroscopies, aided by quantum calculations, to dissect thecis‐ andtrans‐mKeima photocycle from ESPT, isomerization, to ground‐state proton transfer in solution. This work manifests the power of FSRS with global analysis to resolve Raman fingerprints of intermediate states. Importantly, the deprotonatedtrans‐isomer governs LSS emission at 620 nm, while the deprotonatedcis‐isomer's 520 nm emission is weak due to an ultrafastcis‐to‐transisomerization. Complementary spectroscopic techniques as a table‐top toolset are thus essential to study photochemistry in physiological environments.

    

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3. Mapping the Complete Photocycle that Powers a Large Stokes Shift Red Fluorescent Protein

   https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202212209  

   Wang, Ziyu ; Zhang, Ya ; Chen, Cheng ; Zhu, Ruixue ; Jiang, Jiaming ; Weng, Tsu‐Chien ; Ji, Quanjiang ; Huang, Yifan ; Fang, Chong ; Liu, Weimin ( December 2022 , Angewandte Chemie International Edition)

   Large Stokes shift (LSS) red fluorescent proteins (RFPs) are highly desirable for bioimaging advances. The RFP mKeima, with coexistingcis‐andtrans‐isomers, holds significance as an archetypal system for LSS emission due to excited‐state proton transfer (ESPT), yet the mechanisms remain elusive. We implemented femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) and various time‐resolved electronic spectroscopies, aided by quantum calculations, to dissect thecis‐ andtrans‐mKeima photocycle from ESPT, isomerization, to ground‐state proton transfer in solution. This work manifests the power of FSRS with global analysis to resolve Raman fingerprints of intermediate states. Importantly, the deprotonatedtrans‐isomer governs LSS emission at 620 nm, while the deprotonatedcis‐isomer's 520 nm emission is weak due to an ultrafastcis‐to‐transisomerization. Complementary spectroscopic techniques as a table‐top toolset are thus essential to study photochemistry in physiological environments.

    

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4. Ultrafast Excited State Dynamics of Spatially Confined Organic Molecules

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.2c03276  

   Ramamurthy, Vaidhyanathan ; Sen, Pratik ; Elles, Christopher G. ( July 2022 , The Journal of Physical Chemistry A)

   This article highlights the role of spatial confinement in controlling the fundamental behavior of molecules. Select examples illustrate the value of using space as a tool to control and understand excited state dynamics through a combination of ultrafast spectroscopy and conventional steady state methods. Molecules of interest were confined within a closed molecular capsule, derived from a cavitand known as octa acid (OA), whose internal void space is sufficient to accommodate molecules as long as tetracene and as wide as pyrene. The free space, i.e. the space that is left following the occupation of the guest within the host, is shown to play a significant role in altering the behavior of guest molecules in the excited state. The results reported here suggest that in addition to weak interactions that are commonly emphasized in supramolecular chemistry, the extent of empty space (i.e. the remaining void space within the capsule) is important in controlling the excited state behavior of confined molecules on ultrafast time scales. For example, the role of free space in controlling the excited state dynamics of guest molecules is highlighted by probing the cis-trans isomerization of stilbenes and azobenzenes within the OA capsule. Isomerization of both types of molecule are slowed when they are confined within a small space, with encapsulated azobenzenes taking a different reaction pathway compared to that in solution upon excitation to S¬2. In addition to steric constraints, confinement of reactive molecules in a small space helps to override the need for diffusion to bring the reactants together, thus enabling the measurement of processes that occur faster than the time scale for diffusion. The advantages of reducing free space and confining reactive molecules are illustrated by recording unprecedented excimer emission from anthracene and by measuring ultrafast electron transfer rates across the organic molecular wall. By monitoring the translational motion of anthracene pairs in a restricted space it has been possible to document the pathway undertaken by excited anthracene from inception to the formation of the excimer on the excited state surface. Similarly, ultrafast electron transfer experiments pursued here have established that the process is not hindered by a molecular wall. Apparently, the electron can cross the OA capsule wall provided the donor and acceptor are in close proximity. Measurements on the ultrafast time scale provide crucial insights for each of the examples presented here, emphasizing the value of both ‘space’ and ‘time’ in controlling and understanding the dynamics of excited molecules. 

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5. An Unbound Proline-Rich Signaling Peptide Frequently Samples Cis Conformations in Gaussian Accelerated Molecular Dynamics Simulations

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2021.734169  

   Alcantara, Juan ; Stix, Robyn ; Huang, Katherine ; Connor, Acadia ; East, Ray ; Jaramillo-Martinez, Valeria ; Stollar, Elliott J. ; Ball, K. Aurelia ( November 2021 , Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences)

   Disordered proline-rich motifs are common across the proteomes of many species and are often involved in protein-protein interactions. Proline is a unique amino acid due to the covalent bond between the backbone nitrogen and the proline side chain. The resulting five-membered ring allows proline to sample the cis state about its peptide bond, which other residues cannot do as readily. Because proline-rich disordered sequences exist as ensembles that likely include structures with the proline peptide bond in cis , a robust methodology to accurately account for these conformations in the overall ensemble is crucial. Observing the cis conformations of proline in a disordered sequence is challenging both experimentally and computationally. Nitrogen-hydrogen NMR spectroscopy cannot directly observe proline residues, which lack an amide bond, and computational methods struggle to overcome the large kinetic barrier between the cis and trans states, since isomerization usually occurs on the order of seconds. In the current work, Gaussian accelerated molecular dynamics was used to overcome this free energy barrier and simulate proline isomerization in a tetrapeptide (KPTP) and in the 12-residue proline-rich SH3 binding peptide, ArkA. We found that Gaussian accelerated molecular dynamics, when combined with a lowered peptide bond dihedral angle potential energy barrier (15 kcal/mol), allowed sufficient sampling of the proline cis and trans states on a microsecond timescale. All ArkA prolines spend a significant fraction of time in cis , leading to a more compact ensemble with less polyproline II helix structure than an ArkA ensemble with all peptide bonds in trans . The ensemble containing cis prolines also matches more closely to in vitro circular dichroism data than the all- trans ensemble. The ability of the ArkA prolines to isomerize likely affects the peptide’s ability to bind its partner SH3 domain, and should be studied further. This is the first molecular dynamics simulation study of proline isomerization in a biologically relevant proline-rich sequence that we know of, and a similar protocol could be applied to study multi-proline isomerization in other proline-containing proteins to improve conformational diversity and agreement with in vitro data. 

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