Two-photon excitation of a phytofluor protein

Ignacy Gryczynski, Gregorz Piszczek, Joseph R. Lakowicz, J. Clark Lagarias

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Phytofluors are highly fluorescent proteins in which the chromophore in a phytochrome is replaced with phycoerythrobilin (PEB), the pigment precursor of the cyanobacterial light harvesting protein phycoerythrin. We examined the fluorescence spectra of the N-terminal region of the cyanobacterial phytochrome 1 from cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. Pcc 6803 bound to PEB. This protein, Cph1(N514)-PEB, displayed a good two-photon cross-section of 20-30 GM for excitation at 792 nm. This phytofluor also exhibits a high fundamental anisotropy at most practical two-photon excitation (2PE) wavelengths from 700 to 900 nm. Identical lifetimes and correlation times with one and 2PE indicates that the phytofluor is not adversely affected by the intensities needed for 2PE. The one-photon absorption extends well beyond the absorption spectrum and even beyond the emission spectrum to 700 nm. The phytofluor thus appears to be a suitable probe for 2PE and/or cellular imaging.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)13-19
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry
Volume150
Issue number1-3
DOIs
StatePublished - 26 Jul 2002

Keywords

  • Green fluorescent protein
  • One-photon excitation
  • Two-photon excitation

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