Cooperativity and Site-Selectivity of Intramolecular Hydrogen Bonds on the Fluorescence Quenching of Modified GFP Chromophores

• Published in: Journal of organic chemistry 2015-12, Vol.80 (24), p.12431-12443
• Main Authors: Chang, Deng-Hsiang, Ou, Chun-Lin, Hsu, Hung-Yu, Huang, Guan-Jhih, Kao, Chen-Yi, Liu, Yi-Hung, Peng, Shie-Ming, Diau, Eric Wei-Guang, Yang, Jye-Shane
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0022-3263; 1520-6904
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.joc.5b02303

This paper provides the first example of experimentally characterized hydrogen-bond cooperativity on fluorescence quenching with a modified green fluorescence protein (GFP) chromophore that contains a 6-membered CN···H–O and a 7-membered CO···H–O intramolecular H-bonds. Variable-temperature 1H NMR and electronic absorption and emission spectroscopies were used to elucidate the preference of intra- vs intermolecular H-bonding at different concentrations (1 mM and 10 μM), and X-ray crystal structures provide clues of possible intermolecular H-bonding modes. In the ground state, the 6-membered H-bond is significant but the 7-membered one is rather weak. However, fluorescence quenching is dominated by the 7-membered H-bond, indicating a strengthening of the H-bond in the excited state. The H-bonding effect is more pronounced in more polar solvents, and no intermediates were observed from femtosecond fluorescence decays. The fluorescence quenching is attributed to the occurrence of diabatic excited-state proton transfer. Cooperativity of the two intramolecular H-bonds on spectral shifts and fluorescence quenching is evidenced by comparing with both the single H-bonded and the non-H-bonded counterparts. The H-bond cooperativity does not belong to the conventional patterns of σ- and π-cooperativity but a new type of polarization interactions, which demonstrates the significant interplay of H-bonds for multiple H-bonding systems in the electronically excited states.