Excited-state intermediates in a designer protein encoding a phototrigger caught by an X-ray free-electron laser

One of the primary objectives in chemistry research is to observe atomic motions during reactions in real time. Although X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) have facilitated the capture of reaction intermediates using time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography (TR-SFX), only a few natural photoactive proteins have been investigated using this method, mostly due to the lack of suitable phototriggers. Here we report the genetic encoding of a xanthone amino acid (FXO), as an efficient phototrigger, into a rationally designed human liver fatty-acid binding protein mutant (termed XOM), which undergoes photo-induced C-H bond transformation with high selectivity and quantum efficiency. We solved the structures of XOM before and 10-300 ns after flash illumination, at 1.55-1.70 Å resolutions, and captured the elusive excited-state intermediates responsible for precise C-H bond activation. We expect that most redox enzymes can now be investigated by TR-SFX, using our method, to reveal reaction intermediates key for their efficiency and selectivity.