Kindling Fluorescent Protein

Chudakov DM, Feofanov AV, Mudrik NN, Lukyanov S, Lukyanov KA (2003) Chromophore environment provides clue to kindling fluorescent protein riddle. J Biol Chem 278 7215-7219... 

Tretyakova YA, Pakhomov AA, Martynov VI (2007) Chromophore structure of the kindling fluorescent protein asFP595 from Ammonia sulcata. J Am Chem Soc 129 7748-7749... 

Grigorenko, B., Savitsky, A., Topol, L, Burt, S., Nemukhin, A. (2006). Ground-state structures and vertical excitations for the kindling fluorescent protein asFP595. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 110(37), 18635-18640. 

Lukyanov et al. [56] have also proposed that CTI can occur in some GFP-like proteins, where it leads to a dark nonfluorescent state. They based their CTI model on some GFP-like proteins they have isolated. The majority of GFP-like proteins, such as DsRed, are fluorescent and have been isolated from corals. However, there are some nonfluorescent proteins that are in the so-called chromo state ( The chromo state indicates that the protein has a high extinction coefficient but a low quantum yield, whereas in the fluorescent state the protein is characterized by a high quantum yield. ) [56], Most interesting of these is asCP, a unique nonfluorescent GFP-like protein discovered in the sea anemone Anemonia sulcata [57]. Initially nonfluorescent, asCP can be made to fluoresce (kindled) by intense green light irradiation. After kindling the protein relaxes back to its nonfluorescent state, or it can be quenched instantly by short blue light irradiation. 

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