Sergei G. Kruglik

Electronic acceleration of atomic motions and disordering in bismuth.

The development of X-ray and electron diffraction methods with ultrahigh time resolution has made it possible to map directly, at the atomic level, structural changes in solids induced by laser excitation. This has resulted in unprecedented insights into the lattice dynamics of solids undergoing phase transitions. In aluminium, for example, femtosecond optical excitation hardly affects the potential energy surface of the lattice; instead, melting of the material is governed by the transfer of thermal energy between the excited electrons and the initially cold lattice. In semiconductors, in contrast, exciting ∼10 per cent of the valence electrons results in non-thermal lattice collapse owing to the antibonding character of the conduction band. These different material responses raise the intriguing question of how Peierls-distorted systems such as bismuth will respond to strong excitations. The evolution of the atomic configuration of bismuth upon excitation of its A1g lattice mode, which involves damped oscillations of atoms along the direction of the Peierls distortion of the crystal, has been probed, but the actual melting of the material has not yet been investigated. Here we present a femtosecond electron diffraction study of the structural changes in crystalline bismuth as it undergoes laser-induced melting. We find that the dynamics of the phase transition depend strongly on the excitation intensity, with melting occurring within 190 fs (that is, within half a period of the unperturbed A1g lattice mode) at the highest excitation. We attribute the surprising speed of the melting process to laser-induced changes in the potential energy surface of the lattice, which result in strong acceleration of the atoms along the longitudinal direction of the lattice and efficient coupling of this motion to an unstable transverse vibrational mode. That is, the atomic motions in crystalline bismuth can be electronically accelerated so that the solid-to-liquid phase transition occurs on a sub-vibrational timescale.

Grating enhanced ponderomotive scattering for visualization and full characterization of femtosecond electron pulses.

Real time views of atomic motion can be achieved using electron pulses as structural probes. The requisite time resolution requires knowledge of both the electron pulse duration and the exact timing of the excitation pulse and the electron probe to within 10 - 100 fs accuracy. By using an intensity grating to enhance the pondermotive force, we are now able to fully characterize electron pulses and to confirm many body simulations with laser pulse energies on the microjoule level. This development solves one of the last barriers to the highest possible time resolution for electron probes.

Vibrational Analysis of Amino Acids and Short Peptides in Hydrated Media. VIII. Amino Acids with Aromatic Side Chains: L-Phenylalanine, L-Tyrosine, and L-Tryptophan

Four out of the 20 natural α-amino acids (α-AAs) contain aromatic rings in their side chains. In a recent paper (J. Phys. Chem. B 2010, 114, 9072-9083), we have analyzed the structural and vibrational features of l-histidine, one of the potent elements of this series. Here, we report on the three remaining members of this family, i.e., l-phenylalanine, l-tyrosine, and l-tryptophan. Their solution (H(2)O and D(2)O) Raman scattering and Fourier transform infrared absorption attenuated total reflection (FT-IR ATR) spectra were measured at room temperature from the species corresponding to those existing at physiological conditions. Because of the very low water solubility of tyrosine, special attention was paid to avoid any artifact concerning the report of the vibrational spectra corresponding to nondissolved powder of this AA in aqueous solution. Finally, we could obtain for the first time the Raman and FT-IR spectra of tyrosine at very low concentration (2.3 mM) upon long accumulation time. To clarify this point, those vibrational spectra of tyrosine recorded either in the solid phase or in a heterogeneous state, where dissolved and nondissolved species of this AA coexist in aqueous solution, are also provided as Supporting Information . To carry out a discussion on the general geometrical and vibrational behavior of these AAs, we resorted to quantum mechanical calculations at the DFT/B3LYP/6-31++G* level, allowing (i) determination of potential energy surfaces of these AAs in a continuum solvent as a function of the torsion angles χ(1) and χ(2), defining the conformation of each aromatic side chain around C(α)-C(β) and C(β)-C(γ) bonds, respectively; (ii) analysis of geometrical features of the AAs surrounded by clusters of n explicit (n = 5-7) water molecules interacting with the backbone and aromatic rings; and (iii) assignment of the observed vibrational modes by means of the theoretical data provided by the lowest energy conformers of explicitly hydrated amino acids.

Fast characterisation of cell-derived extracellular vesicles by nanoparticles tracking analysis, cryo-electron microscopy, and Raman tweezers microspectroscopy

The joint use of 3 complementary techniques, namely, nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA), cryo-electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) and Raman tweezers microspectroscopy (RTM), is proposed for a rapid characterisation of extracellular vesicles (EVs) of various origins. NTA is valuable for studying the size distribution and concentration, Cryo-EM is outstanding for the morphological characterisation, including observation of vesicle heterogeneity, while RTM provides the global chemical composition without using any exogenous label. The capabilities of this approach are evaluated on the example of cell-derived vesicles of Dictyostelium discoideum, a convenient general model for eukaryotic EVs. At least 2 separate species differing in chemical composition (relative amounts of DNA, lipids and proteins, presence of carotenoids) were found for each of the 2 physiological states of this non-pathogenic microorganism, that is, cell growth and starvation-induced aggregation. These findings demonstrate the specific potency of RTM. In addition, the first Raman spectra of human urinary exosomes are reported, presumably constituting the primary step towards Raman characterisation of EVs for the purpose of human diseases diagnoses.

Whole-brain functional imaging with two-photon light-sheet microscopy

To the Editor: Several studies recently demonstrated that one-photon (1P) light-sheet imaging gives access to the spontaneous activity of a large fraction of the zebrafish larval brain at nearly single-cell resolution1–3. This imaging method, however, requires an intense and extended illumination at a wavelength (l = 488 nm) that lies within the most sensitive region of the fish visible spectrum4 and therefore likely stimulates the blue photoreceptors in the retina as well as other photosensitive cells5. As an alternative, we report on brain-wide three-dimensional (3D) neural recordings during visuomotor integration in zebrafish larvae using two-photon (2P) light-sheet imaging6 at a wavelength of 930 nm combined with visual stimulation. The extent to which 1P illumination interferes with visually driven processes is critical as it determines the suitability of light-sheet imag-

Molecular Basis for Nitric Oxide Dynamics and Affinity with Alcaligenes xylosoxidans Cytochrome ć

The bacterial heme protein cytochrome ć from Alcaligenes xylosoxidans (AXCP) reacts with nitric oxide (NO) to form a 5-coordinate ferrous nitrosyl heme complex. The crystal structure of ferrous nitrosyl AXCP has previously revealed that NO is bound in an unprecedented manner on the proximal side of the heme. To understand how the protein structure of AXCP controls NO dynamics, we performed absorption and Raman time-resolved studies at the heme level as well as a molecular computational dynamics study at the entire protein structure level. We found that after NO dissociation from the heme iron, the structure of the proximal heme pocket of AXCP confines NO close to the iron so that an ultrafast (7 ps) and complete (99 ± 1%) geminate rebinding occurs, whereas the proximal histidine does not rebind to the heme iron on the timescale of NO geminate rebinding. The distal side controls the initial NO binding, whereas the proximal heme pocket controls its release. These dynamic properties allow the trapping of NO within the protein core and represent an extreme behavior observed among heme proteins.

Picosecond primary structural transition of the heme is retarded after nitric oxide binding to heme proteins

We investigated the ultrafast structural transitions of the heme induced by nitric oxide (NO) binding for several heme proteins by subpicosecond time-resolved resonance Raman and femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy. We probed the heme iron motion by the evolution of the iron-histidine Raman band intensity after NO photolysis. Unexpectedly, we found that the heme response and iron motion do not follow the kinetics of NO rebinding. Whereas NO dissociation induces quasi-instantaneous iron motion and heme doming (< 0.6 ps), the reverse process results in a much slower picosecond movement of the iron toward the planar heme configuration after NO binding. The time constant for this primary domed-to-planar heme transition varies among proteins (∼30 ps for myoglobin and its H64V mutant, ∼15 ps for hemoglobin, ∼7 ps for dehaloperoxidase, and ∼6 ps for cytochrome c) and depends upon constraints exerted by the protein structure on the heme cofactor. This observed phenomenon constitutes the primary structural transition in heme proteins induced by NO binding.

Role of Heme Iron Coordination and Protein Structure in the Dynamics and Geminate Rebinding of Nitric Oxide to the H93G Myoglobin Mutant IMPLICATIONS FOR NITRIC OXIDE SENSORS

The influence of the heme iron coordination on nitric oxide binding dynamics was investigated for the myoglobin mutant H93G (H93G-Mb) by picosecond absorption and resonance Raman timeresolved spectroscopies. In the H93G-Mb, the glycine replacing the proximal histidine does not interact with the heme iron so that exogenous substituents like imidazole may coordinate to the iron at the proximal position. Nitrosylation of H93G-Mb leads to either 6- or 5-coordinate species depending on the imidazole concentration. At high concentrations, (imidazole)-(NO)-6-coordinate heme is formed, and the photoinduced rebinding kinetics reveal two exponential picosecond phases (∼10 and ∼100 ps) similar to those of wild type myoglobin. At low concentrations, imidazole is displaced by the trans effect leading to a (NO)-5-coordinate heme, becoming 4-coordinate immediately after photolysis as revealed from the transient Raman spectrum. In this case, NO rebinding kinetics remain bi-exponential with no change in time constant of the fast component whose amplitude increases with respect to the 6-coordinate species. Bi-exponential NO geminate rebinding in 5-coordinate H93G-Mb is in contrast with the single-exponential process reported for nitrosylated soluble guanylate cyclase (Negrerie, M., Bouzhir, L., Martin, J. L., and Liebl, U. (2001) J. Biol. Chem. 276, 46815-46821). Thus, our data show that the iron coordination state or the heme iron out-of-plane motion are not at the origin of the bi-exponential kinetics, which depends upon the protein structure, and that the 4-coordinate state favors the fast phase of NO geminate rebinding. Consequently, the heme coordination state together with the energy barriers provided by the protein structure control the dynamics and affinity for NO-binding enzymes.

Subpicosecond oxygen trapping in the heme pocket of the oxygen sensor FixL observed by time-resolved resonance Raman spectroscopy

Dissociation of oxygen from the heme domain of the bacterial oxygen sensor protein FixL constitutes the first step in hypoxia-induced signaling. In the present study, the photodissociation of the heme-O2 bond was used to synchronize this event, and time-resolved resonance Raman (TR3) spectroscopy with subpicosecond time resolution was implemented to characterize the heme configuration of the primary photoproduct. TR3 measurements on heme-oxycomplexes are highly challenging and have not yet been reported. Whereas in all other known six-coordinated heme protein complexes with diatomic ligands, including the oxymyoglobin reported here, heme iron out-of-plane motion (doming) occurs faster than 1 ps after iron–ligand bond breaking; surprisingly, no sizeable doming is observed in the oxycomplex of the Bradyrhizobium japonicum FixL sensor domain (FixLH). This assessment is deduced from the absence of the iron–histidine band around 217 cm−1 as early as 0.5 ps. We suggest that efficient ultrafast oxygen rebinding to the heme occurs on the femtosecond time scale, thus hindering heme doming. Comparing WT oxy-FixLH, mutant proteins FixLH-R220H and FixLH-R220Q, the respective carbonmonoxy-complexes, and oxymyoglobin, we show that a hydrogen bond of the terminal oxygen atom with the residue in position 220 is responsible for the observed behavior; in WT FixL this residue is arginine, crucially implicated in signal transmission. We propose that the rigid O2 configuration imposed by this residue, in combination with the hydrophobic and constrained properties of the distal cavity, keep dissociated oxygen in place. These results uncover the origin of the “oxygen cage” properties of this oxygen sensor protein.

Energy maps, side chain conformational flexibility, and vibrational features of polar amino acids L-serine and L-threonine in aqueous environment.

A comprehensive description of the energetic, conformational, and vibrational features of the two amino acids (AAs) with polar side chains, i.e., serine and threonine, in aqueous environment, is provided. To adequately analyze the side chain conformational flexibility of these amino acids, we resorted to quantum mechanical calculations with the use of density functional theory, which allowed the determination of the energetic features of these AAs through 236 clusters. Each cluster contains a zwitterionic AA surrounded by seven explicit water molecules. The obtained data could evidence the effect of the side chain conformational angle (χ(1) and χ(2)) as well as the location of water molecules on the energy landscapes of both AAs. Four of the lowest energy clusters of each AA, which give rise to distinct side chain conformations, were selected in order to reproduce the FT-IR and Raman spectra recorded in aqueous solutions and to assign the vibrational modes responsible of the main observed bands.