Role of Hydrogen Bonding in Green Fluorescent Protein-like Chromophore Emission

Li Yang,Shifeng Nian,Xiaofeng Chen,Hui Miao,Edward Sharman,Xuepeng Zhang,Guozhen Zhang,Yi Luo,Jun Jiang

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-47660-0

Abstract

The fluorescence emission from green fluorescent protein (GFP) is known to be heavily influenced by hydrogen bonding between the core fluorophore and the surrounding side chains or water molecules. Yet how to utilize this feature for modulating the fluorescence of GFP chromophore or GFP-like fluorophore still remains elusive. Here we present theoretical calculations to predict how hydrogen bonding could influence the excited states of the GFP-like fluorophores. These studies provide both a new perspective for understanding the photophysical properties of GFP as well as a solid basis for the rational design of GFP-based fluorophores.

Highlights

Given that the synthetic replication of the three-residue-led moiety with exactly the same chemical structure as p-HOBDI only produces weak to no fluorescence in both solutions and polymer films, it is apparent that the key to the highly emissive state relies on the specificity of the surrounding protein matrix[8]
Considering that the practical chromophore normally does not emit fluorescence in absence of water, we investigated the role of water in forming an essential hydrogen-bond network with hydrogen and protons
Between the two most stable structures, the latter one that bears hydrogen bonds consisting of water molecules and hydrogen is more reasonable, since it is in line with the fact that the practical chromophore would often interacts with water molecules in solution

Summary

Chromophore Emission

Li Yang[1,2], Shifeng Nian[2], Guozhen Zhang[2], Edward Sharman[4], Hui Miao[2], Xuepeng Zhang[2], Xiaofeng Chen3,Yi Luo 2 & Jun Jiang 2. The hydrogen bonding with proton and water molecule couldn’t lead to significant fluorescent alteration due www.nature.com/scientificreports to the little change of electronic structure This provides an efficient knob to control the spectral properties of GFP-related chromophores via hydrogen bonding, expanding the applications of GFP-like chromophores and some other relevant fluorescent materials. The hydrogen bonding with proton and water molecule couldn’t lead to significant fluorescent alteration due to the little change of electronic structure

Methods

Author Contributions

Additional Information