Providing detailed structural descriptions of the ultrafast photochemical events that occur in light-sensitive proteins is key to their understanding. Now, excited-state structures in the reversibly switchable fluorescent protein rsEGFP2 have been solved by time-resolved crystallography using an X-ray laser. These structures enabled the design of a mutant with improved photoswitching quantum yields.
- Nicolas Coquelle
- Michel Sliwa
- Martin Weik