Spectral hole burning and selection of conformational substates in chromoproteins.

Friedrich, J; Gafert, J; Zollfrank, J; Vanderkooi, J; Fidy, J · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 1994

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We investigated spectral holes burnt at 1.5 K into the origins of several tautomeric forms of mesoporphyrin IX-substituted horseradish peroxidase at pH 8 under pressures up to 2 MPa. From the pressure-induced lineshift the compressibility of the apoprotein could be determined. We found that the compressibility changed significantly when measured at different tautomer origins. It was concluded that there must be a correlation between the tautomer configurations of the chromophore and the actual structures of the apoprotein. As a consequence, specific conformational substates of the protein can be selected by optical selection of the associated tautomers.