The hairpin extension controls solvent access to the chromophore binding pocket in a bacterial phytochrome: a UV-vis absorption spectroscopy study

Solvent access to the protein interior plays an important role in the function of many proteins. Phytochromes contain a specific structural feature, a hairpin extension that appears to relay structural information from the chromophore to the rest of the protein. The extension interacts with amino acids near the chromophore, and hence shields the chromophore from the surrounding solvent. We envision that the detachment of the extension from the protein surface allows solvent exchange reactions in the vicinity of the chromophore. This can facilitate for example, proton transfer processes between solvent and the protein interior. To test this hypothesis, the kinetics of the protonation state of the biliverdin chromophore from Deinococcus radiodurans bacteriophytchrome, and thus, the pH of the surrounding solution, is determined. The observed absorbance changes are related to the solvent access of the chromophore binding pocket, gated by the hairpin extension. We therefore propose a model with an “open” (solvent-exposed, deprotonation-active on a (sub)second time-scale) state and a “closed” (solvent-gated, deprotonation inactive) state, where the hairpin fluctuates slowly between these conformations thereby controlling the deprotonation process of the chromophore on a minute time scale. When the connection between the hairpin and the biliverdin surroundings is destabilized by a point mutation, the amplitude of the deprotonation phase increases considerably. In the absence of the extension, the chromophore deprotonates essentially without any “gating”. Hence, we introduce a straightforward method to study the stability and fluctuation of the phytochrome hairpin in its photostationary state. This approach can be extended to other chromophore-protein systems where absorption changes reflect dynamic processes of the protein.