Two excited states in aequorin bioluminescence induced by tryptophan modification.

The Ca(2+)-activated photoprotein, aequorin, contains six tryptophan residues and has a bioluminescence emission maximum at 465 nm. On converting the six tryptophan residues to phenylalanine, the mutant aequorins exhibited varied luminescence activities and spectra, but one mutant, with tryptophan-86 replaced by phenylalanine, gave a bimodal emission spectrum, with maxima at 455 nm and 400 nm. This result suggests that tryptophan-86 may be importantly involved in the generation of the product excited state during aequorin bioluminescence.