Time-resolved optical absorption microspectroscopy of magnetic field sensitive flavin photochemistry

The photochemical reactions of blue-light receptor proteins have received much attention due to their very important biological functions. In addition, there is also growing evidence that the one particular class of such proteins, the cryptochromes, may be associated with not only a biological photo...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Antill, L., Beardmore, Josh, Woodward, J.
Format: Journal Article
Published: American Institute of Physics 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/68245
_version_ 1848761781925707776
author Antill, L.
Beardmore, Josh
Woodward, J.
author_facet Antill, L.
Beardmore, Josh
Woodward, J.
author_sort Antill, L.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The photochemical reactions of blue-light receptor proteins have received much attention due to their very important biological functions. In addition, there is also growing evidence that the one particular class of such proteins, the cryptochromes, may be associated with not only a biological photo-response but also a magneto-response, which may be responsible for the mechanism by which many animals can respond to the weak geomagnetic field. Therefore, there is an important scientific question over whether it is possible to directly observe such photochemical processes, and indeed the effects of weak magnetic fields thereon, taking place both in purified protein samples in vitro and in actual biochemical cells and tissues. For the former samples, the key lies in being able to make sensitive spectroscopic measurements on very small volumes of samples at potentially low protein concentrations, while the latter requires, in addition, spatially resolved measurements on length scales smaller than typical cellular components, i.e., sub-micron resolution. In this work, we discuss a two- and three-color confocal pump-probe microscopic approach to this question which satisfies these requirements and is thus useful for experimental measurements in both cases.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T10:37:08Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-68245
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T10:37:08Z
publishDate 2018
publisher American Institute of Physics
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-682452019-03-15T05:34:02Z Time-resolved optical absorption microspectroscopy of magnetic field sensitive flavin photochemistry Antill, L. Beardmore, Josh Woodward, J. The photochemical reactions of blue-light receptor proteins have received much attention due to their very important biological functions. In addition, there is also growing evidence that the one particular class of such proteins, the cryptochromes, may be associated with not only a biological photo-response but also a magneto-response, which may be responsible for the mechanism by which many animals can respond to the weak geomagnetic field. Therefore, there is an important scientific question over whether it is possible to directly observe such photochemical processes, and indeed the effects of weak magnetic fields thereon, taking place both in purified protein samples in vitro and in actual biochemical cells and tissues. For the former samples, the key lies in being able to make sensitive spectroscopic measurements on very small volumes of samples at potentially low protein concentrations, while the latter requires, in addition, spatially resolved measurements on length scales smaller than typical cellular components, i.e., sub-micron resolution. In this work, we discuss a two- and three-color confocal pump-probe microscopic approach to this question which satisfies these requirements and is thus useful for experimental measurements in both cases. 2018 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/68245 10.1063/1.5011693 American Institute of Physics fulltext
spellingShingle Antill, L.
Beardmore, Josh
Woodward, J.
Time-resolved optical absorption microspectroscopy of magnetic field sensitive flavin photochemistry
title Time-resolved optical absorption microspectroscopy of magnetic field sensitive flavin photochemistry
title_full Time-resolved optical absorption microspectroscopy of magnetic field sensitive flavin photochemistry
title_fullStr Time-resolved optical absorption microspectroscopy of magnetic field sensitive flavin photochemistry
title_full_unstemmed Time-resolved optical absorption microspectroscopy of magnetic field sensitive flavin photochemistry
title_short Time-resolved optical absorption microspectroscopy of magnetic field sensitive flavin photochemistry
title_sort time-resolved optical absorption microspectroscopy of magnetic field sensitive flavin photochemistry
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/68245