Effects of Internal Rotations on the Time-Resolved Fluorescence in a Bichromophoric Protein System Under the Energy Transfer Interaction

Abstract

Effects of internal rotations of chromophores under the energy transfer interaction in proteins on the time-resolved fluorescence were examined by numerical calculations. Expressions used for the calculations are based on the approximations that the energy transfer takes place according to Foöurster's mechanism and the rotational motions of the energy donor and acceptor along the surfaces of cones are described by a set of rotational diffusion equations. The intensity decay of the donor depended a little on the rotational diffusion coefficient of the donor in some cases, while that of the acceptor did very little. Anisotropy of the donor decayed faster as the diffusion coefficient of the donor increased. Anisotropy decay of the acceptor markedly depended not only on the mutual configuration of the pair in the protein, but also on the diffusion coefficient of the donor. The dependence of the time-resolved fluorescence on the diffusion coefficient of the acceptor was not as great as that of the donor.