The E1 Mechanism in Photo-Induced β-Elimination Reactions for Green-to-Red Conversion of Fluorescent Proteins

KikGR is a fluorescent protein engineered to display green-to-red photoconvertibility that is induced by irradiation with ultraviolet or violet light. Similar to Kaede and EosFP, two naturally occurring photoconvertible proteins, KikGR contains a HiS(62)-Tyr(63)-Gly(64) tripeptide sequence, which forms a green chromophore that can be photoconverted to a red one via formal beta-elimination and subsequent extension of a pi-conjugated system. Using a crystallizable variant of KikGR, we determined the structures of both the green and red state at 1.55 angstrom. resolution. The double bond between HiS(62)-C-alpha and HiS(62)-C-beta in the red chromophore is in a cis configuration, indicating that rotation along the HiS(62) C-alpha-C-beta bond occurs following cleavage of the HiS(62) N-alpha-C-alpha bond. This structural rearrangement provides evidence that the beta-elimination reaction governing the green-to-red photoconversion of KikGR follows an E1 (elimination, unimolecular) mechanism.