Exploring the Structure

The color of light that is emitted by luciferase is highly dependent on the amino acids that surround the luciferin. PDB entry 2d1s (on the left) is the structure of luciferase from a Japanese firefly. It normally emits a greenish-yellow light. But if you change one amino acid from a serine to an asparagine, the color changes to red, as seen in PDB entry 2d1t (on the right). Surprisingly, this change is a fair distance from the luciferin, and the color change is thought to be caused by slight changes in the packing of amino acids and a change in the flexibility around the luciferin.

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A list of 'luciferase' related entries in the PDB as determined by a keyword search on June 02, 2006 is available. For more information on luciferase, click here.