A Phycocyanobilin Seryliminoester as a New Model for the Chromophore-Protein Interaction in Phytochrome

摘要

Phytochrome is the photoreceptor of photomorphogenesis in higher plants.It exists in two forms (Pr = phytochrome red, Pfr = phytochrome far red) which differ in their absorption spectra (660 and 730 nin, respectively) and can be interconvert-ed photochemically. Structurally, phytochrome Pr 1 is a biliprotein. It can be transformed into the physiologically active Pfr form by photoisomerization and a sequence of dark reactions. These dark reactions are well characterized by spec-troscopy, but the structures of the intermediates involved, and that of the Pfr form itself, are largely unknown.