Tracking the Electron Transfer Cascade in European Robin Cryptochrome 4 Mutants

The primary step in the mechanism by which migratory birds sense the Earth's magnetic field is thought to be the light-induced formation of long-lived magnetically sensitive radical pairs within cryptochrome flavoproteins located in the birds' retinas. Blue-light absorption by the non-covalently bound flavin chromophore triggers sequential electron transfers along a chain of four tryptophan residues toward the photoexcited flavin. The recently demonstrated ability to express cryptochrome 4a from the night-migratory European robin (Erithacus rubecula), ErCry4a, and to replace each of the tryptophan residues by a redox-inactive phenylalanine offers the prospect of exploring the roles of the four tryptophans. Here, we use ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy to compare wild type ErCry4a and four mutants having a phenylalanine at different positions in the chain. We find that each of the three tryptophan residues closest to the flavin adds a distinct relaxation component (time constants: 0.5, 30, and 150 ps) in the transient absorption data. The dynamics of the mutant containing a phenylalanine at the fourth position, furthest from the flavin, are very similar to those of wild type ErCry4a, except for a reduced concentration of long-lived radical pairs. The experimental results are evaluated and discussed in the framework of real-time quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical electron transfer simulations based on the density functional-based tight binding approach. This comparison between simulation results and experimental measurements provides a detailed microscopic insight into the sequential electron transfers along the tryptophan chain. Our results offer a route to the study of spin transport and dynamical spin correlations in flavoprotein radical pairs.