Comparison of Various Films Used in Biophysical Investigations as Anisotropic Matrices

Polarized spectra of biological molecules oriented in artificial systems can give useful information of structural and spectroscopical properties of these molecules^1,2. Such investigations have been carried out recently for several biological systems: chlorophylls^{3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, carotenoids⁸, biliproteins^{9, 10}, bacterial reaction centers^{11, 12}, bacteriochlorophylls¹³ etc.     

Phycobiliproteins encapsulated in sol-gel glass

Light transducing phycobiliproteins are encapsulated in optically transparent sol-gel matrices. Absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies are used to characterize the effect of the sol-gel encapsulation on the conformation and aggregation states of the three major phycobiliproteins present in phycobilisomes: phycoerythrin, phycocyanin, and allophycocyanin. It is found that the effects of sol-gel entrapment on the spectroscopic properties are significantly different for the three phycobiliproteins. The results indicate that phycoerythrin undergoes only minor change in its native structure when entrapped in sol-gel. However, significant changes in conformation and aggregation state occur when phycocyanin and allophycocyanin are entrapped in sol-gel matrices. A thin film of sol-gel encapsulated phycoerythrin is also coated on an optical fiber surface and strong fluorescence from the evanescent wave excitation is detected. The potential applications of sol-gel encapsulated phycobiliproteins in biosensors are discussed.     

甜菜碱与藻胆蛋白超分子复合体相互作用的分子机制

甘氨酸甜菜碱是具有重要生物学意义的生物小分子,它可以保护细胞、蛋白和酶的结构功能完整性,也会导致蛋白超分子结构松散、功能钝化,这两种相反作用的分子机制尚不清楚．本文以超分子藻胆蛋白和藻胆体为模型,证明甜菜碱导致超分子藻胆体结构松散、各组份能量失耦合,最敏感的作用位点是核．膜连接多肽,其次是杆一核连接多肽．C－藻蓝蛋白三聚体与单体对甜菜碱的相应完全不同,前者结构松散而后者相对聚集．甜菜碱屏蔽静电吸引力导致结构松散但强化基元蛋白之间的疏水作用力是两种相反现象的本质,甜菜碱最终导致C－藻蓝蛋白三聚体和单体相同的光谱特征是两种机制的“折中”．