How the Light-Sensitive Component of a Protein from Photosynthetic Bacteria Responds to Light (IMAGE)

DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

How the Light-Sensitive Component of a Protein from Photosynthetic Bacteria Responds to Light

Caption

This animation illustrates how the light-sensitive component of a protein (photoactive yellow protein, PYP) from photosynthetic bacteria responds to light. The light flash creates an excited state, from which the protein relaxes by rearranging its structure. Researchers using LCLS have now succeeded in taking the first real-time snapshots of this rearrangement, called trans-to-cis isomerization, which happens about 590 quadrillionths of a second (femtoseconds, fs) after the light pulse.

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SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

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