Multiphoton molecular spectroscopy and excited-state dynamics of enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP): acid–base specificity

Abstract

Green fluorescent protein (GFP), isolated from Aequorea victoria jellyfish, has been used extensively as a noninvasive intracellular pH indicator and site-specific fluorescent marker in biochemistry, cell biology, and molecular genetics. Numerous mutations, aimed at optimizing spectroscopic and thermodynamic properties of GFP, have been created for different applications. Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) reveals that the enhanced green fluorescent protein mutant (EGFP; S65T/F64L) undergoes external proton exchange with the buffer on ∼45–300 μs time scale with p K a=5.8±0.1 [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95 (1998) 13573]. This contribution represents a comprehensive characterization of pH and excitation mode (wavelength, one and two photon (2P)) effects on the spectroscopy, excited-state dynamics, and rotational mobility of EGFP aiming at elucidating the significant electronic states of this molecular system. EGFP exhibits a large 2P action cross-section and, therefore, is well suited for intracellular imaging using 2P fluorescence microscopy.