Bacteriophytochrome Photoisomerization Proceeds Homogeneously Despite Heterogeneity in Ground State

Phytochromes are red/far-red photoreceptors that are widely distributed in plants and prokaryotes. Ultrafast photoisomerization of a double bond in a biliverdin cofactor or other linear tetrapyrrole drives their photoactivity, but their photodynamics are only partially understood. Multiexponential dynamics were observed in previous ultrafast spectroscopic studies and were attributed to heterogeneous populations of the pigment-protein complex. In this work, two-dimensional photon echo spectroscopy was applied to study dynamics of the bacteriophytochromes RpBphP2 and PaBphP. Two-dimensional photon echo spectroscopy can simultaneously resolve inhomogeneity in ensembles and fast dynamics by correlating pump wavelength with the emitted signal wavelength. The distribution of absorption and emission energies within the same state indicates an ensemble of heterogeneous protein environments that are spectroscopically distinct. However, the lifetimes of the dynamics are uniform across the ensemble, suggesting a homogeneous model involving sequential intermediates for the initial photodynamics of isomerization.