Subpicosecond UV spectroscopy of carbonmonoxy-myoglobin: absorption and circular dichroism studies.

A thorough absorption and circular dichroism study is performed in carbonmonoxy-myoglobin with a sub-picosecond visible pump, ultraviolet probe experiment. Differential absorption in the 220-360 nm range shows that the time-resolved response mainly comes from the heme and that aromatic amino acids do not contribute significantly. Time-resolved CD at 260 nm shows no dynamics and confirms this result. On the contrary, a strong CD dynamics is observed at 230 nm. This signal could originate from transient deformation of the alpha-helices in the protein.