• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.10-14
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• 2021

mCherry is one of the well-understood red fluorescent proteins which has a similar tertiary structure as GFPs, but pH resistant due to the lack of hydrogen bond network. Whereas mCherry-I202T showed far-red fluorescence and also pH sensitive property because of the additional hydrogen bond formed by substituting Ile of 202 amino acid sequence on mCherry with Thr. In order to verify the pH sensitive characteristic of mCherry-I202T owing to the extension of hydrogen bond, UV-vis spectrum was measured over the range of acidic to basic pH. We also demonstrate further possibilities of applying mCherry-I202T as a pH sensor.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.233-239
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• 2021

Cyanobacteriochromes (CBCRs) are phytochrome-related photoreceptor proteins in cyanobacteria and cover a wide spectral range from ultraviolet to far-red. A single GAF domain that they contain can bind bilin(s) autocatalytically via heterologous recombination and then fluoresce, with potential applications as biomarkers and biosensors. Here, we report that a novel red/green CBCR GAF domain, SPI1085g2 from Spirulina subsalsa, covalently binds both phycocyanobilin (PCB) and phycoerythrobilin (PEB). The PCB-binding GAF domain exhibited canonical red/green photoconversion with weak fluorescence emission. However, the PEB-binding GAF domain, SPI1085g2-PEB, exhibited an intense orange fluorescence (λabs.max = 520 nm, λfluor.max = 555 nm), with a fluorescence quantum yield close to 1.0. The fluorescence of SPI1085g2-PEB was selectively and instantaneously quenched by copper ions in a concentration-dependent manner and exhibited reversibility upon treatment with the metal chelator EDTA. This study identified a novel PEB-binding cyanobacteriochrome-based fluorescent protein with the highest quantum yield reported to date and suggests its potential as a biosensor for the rapid detection of copper ions.