Investigations of the primary events in a bacterial photoreceptor for photomotility: photoactive yellow protein (PYP)

PYP, the Photoactive Yellow Protein, is a small water-soluble protein extracted from the cytosol of the halophilic purple bacterium Halorhodospira halophila. PYP is thought to mediate the phototactic response of the bacterium against blue light. Its chromophore is the deprotonated trans-p-hydroxycinnamic acid covalently linked, via a thioester bond, to the unique cysteine residue of the protein. Upon blue-light irradiation, PYP undergoes a photocycle. As for rhodopsins, the trans to cis isomerization of the chromophore was shown to be the first overall step of this photocycle. From time-resolved spectroscopy measurements on native PYP in solution, it emerged that the reaction involves a series of fast events on the subpicosecond and picosecond timescales, but the reaction path that leads to the formation of the cis isomer is not clear yet. A few years ago, we initiated a comparative study of native PYP and several chromophore analogues in solution in order to try to further clarify the early steps of the photocycle. Our experimental approach consists in probing, in real-time, the ultrafast photoinduced events by transient absorption and gain spectroscopy using the pump-probe technique. In the present paper, we review our experimental results and discuss them within the context of the recent literature.