Dr. Tatjana Domratcheva
Computational Photobiology
Max Planck Institute
Germany

Thursday, January 19, 2012
3:00 pm (CT)
3269 Beckman Institute

Abstract

Photochemistry of flavoproteins, a topic of extensive studies in the last decade, plays a crucial role in non-visual photoreception. Photoreactions of flavoproteins involve formation of radical pairs and encompass a photoactivation mechanism which is distinct from the cis-trans isomerization of other photoreceptor proteins, for instance rhodopsins. Our understanding of the flavin-based photoreactions obtained from quantum-mechanical calculations and new computational approaches to study formation and evolution of radical pairs will be summarized. Two prominent examples of photoactive flavoproteins - the BLUF photoreceptors and photolyases - will be considered.