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Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Ultrafast Time-resolved Near-IR Stimulated Raman Measurements of Functional π-conjugate Systems
Published on: February 10, 2020
Homogeneity of phytochrome Cph1 vibronic absorption revealed by resonance Raman intensity analysis
Katelyn M Spillane1, Jyotishman Dasgupta, J Clark Lagarias
1Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Abstract:
Phytochromes are an important class of red/far-red responsive photoreceptors that act as light-activated biological switches, ultimately driving growth and development in plants, bacteria, and fungi. The composition of the red-absorbing ground-state has been widely debated due to the presence of a shoulder feature on the blue edge of electronic absorption spectra, which many have attributed to the presence of multiple ground-state conformers. Here we use resonance Raman intensity analysis to calculate the vibronic absorption profile of cyanobacterial phytochrome Cph1 and show that this shoulder feature is due simply to vibronic transitions from a single species, thus reflecting a homogeneous ground-state population.
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