Artificial photoactive proteins

Abstract

Solar power is the most abundant source of renewable energy. In this respect, the goal of making photoactive proteins is to utilize this energy to generate an electron flow. Photosystems have provided the blueprint for making such systems, since they are capable of converting the energy of light into an electron flow using a series of redox cofactors. Protein tunes the redox potential of the cofactors and arranges them such that their distance and orientation are optimal for the creation of a stable charge separation. The aim of this review is to present an overview of the literature with regard to some elegant functional structures that protein designers have created by introducing cofactors and photoactivity into synthetic proteins.

Design and engineering of water-soluble light-harvesting protein maquettes

“… 4 Many studies with artificial proteins also rely on detergent to solubilize light active tetrapyrrole cofactors and/or the proteins themselves. 23 – 26 These systems are clarifying what factors determine the binding specificity and different protein-metal coordination preferences of detergent solubilized Chl a, b and c. 27 …”

Creating a bio-hybrid signal transduction pathway: opening a new channel of communication between cells and machines

“…A variety of techniques have been developed to transform chemically active proteins into photoactive analogues. One such approach is to insert specific amino acid structures (scaffolds) into regions of the protein that are able to accept an electron from a photon and hence initiate an electron transfer pathway [24]. Several examples of such scaffolds have been identified and these include yellow photoactive protein and light-oxygen-voltage (LOV) domains.…”

“…Several examples of such scaffolds have been identified and these include yellow photoactive protein and light-oxygen-voltage (LOV) domains. Others have been specifically designed, such as the tetrahelical structures described in the work of Wand et al [24][25][26].…”

A Combined Experimental and Theoretical Study of ESR Hyperfine Coupling Constants for N,N,N’,N’-Tetrasubstituted p-Phenylenediamine Radical Cations

“…A chemically interesting group of molecules that are an exception to this fact are persistent N,N,N’,N’ -tetrasubstituted p -phenylenediamine radical cationic species, the redox properties of which have been explored in detail [ 2 , 3 ]. Applications include materials for solar cells [ 4 , 5 ], artificial photosynthesis [ 6 , 7 , 8 ], and organic molecular conductors [ 9 ], to name a few. The first study of N,N,N’,N’ -tetrasubstituted p -phenylenediamines included ESR electron nuclear double resonance spectroscopy (ENDOR) measurements complemented by density functional theory (DFT) calculations of TMePD, TiPrPD, and BPyrB [ 10 ] (For structures and abbreviations, see Figure 1 and Table 1 ).…”