Structural Basis of the Radical Pair State in Photolyases and Cryptochromes

Overview

Journal Chem Commun (Camb)

Publisher Royal Society of Chemistry

Specialty Chemistry

Date 2022 Mar 30

PMID 35352724

Authors

Andrea Cellini

Madan Kumar Shankar

Weixiao Yuan Wahlgren

Amke Nimmrich

Antonia Furrer

Daniel James

Maximilian Wranik

Sylvain Aumonier

Emma V Beale

Florian Dworkowski

Jorg Standfuss

Tobias Weinert

Sebastian Westenhoff

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We present the structure of a photoactivated animal (6-4) photolyase in its radical pair state, captured by serial crystallography. We observe how a conserved asparigine moves towards the semiquinone FAD chromophore and stabilizes it by hydrogen bonding. Several amino acids around the final tryptophan radical rearrange, opening it up to the solvent. The structure explains how the protein environment stabilizes the radical pair state, which is crucial for function of (6-4) photolyases and cryptochromes.

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