In this study, three kinds of red-emitting Ag nanoclusters capped with denatured lysozyme (dLys-AgNCs) were synthesized from different reactant molar ratio of AgNO 3 and lysozyme, called dLys-AgNCs 1, dLys-AgNCs 2 and dLys-AgNCs 3, respectively.The thus synthesized dLys-AgNCs 1 contained only Ag(0), while dLys-AgNCs 2 and dLys-AgNCs 3 contained both Ag(0) and Ag(I). The maximum emission wavelengths of the three dLys-AgNCs were all located near 640 nm when excited at 490 nm, but with different photoluminescence intensity. The photoluminescence properties of these dLys-AgNCs in the presence of common inorganic anions were studied. The three dLys-AgNCs had distinct photoluminescence responding mode to S 2-. The photoluminescence of dLys-AgNCs 1 could be quenched by S 2-, as S 2-destroyed the nanostructure of dLys-AgNCs 1 by forming Ag 2 S. While, the photoluminescence of dLys-AgNCs 3 could be enhanced by S 2-, as S 2-would combine with Ag(I) contained in dLys-AgNCs 3 and altered the ligand-to-metal-metal charge transfer process. For dLys-AgNCs 2, the photoluminescence was enhanced firstly with small amount of S 2-and then quenched with more S 2-added, and this could be due to that S 2-combined with Ag(I) first at low concentration and then with Ag(0) in high concentration. Other anions had no obvious effects except that I -could quench the photoluminescence of these three dLys-AgNCs. The responding mechanisms were further studied by XPS, MS, zeta potential, DLS, and lifetime measurements. Moreover, the as-prepared dLys-AgNCs 1 and dLys-AgNCs 3 were used as fluorescent probe for S 2-