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In order to modulate the emission of BODIPY fluorophores, they were connected to a diarylethene (DAE) photoswitch via phenylene-ethynylene linkers of different lengths and orientations. The latter allowed for modulation of the electronic coupling in the prepared four BODIPY-DAE dyads, which were compared also to appropriate BODIPY and DAE model compounds by steady state as well as time-resolved spectroscopies. In their open isomers, all dyads show comparable luminescence behavior indicative of an unperturbed BODIPY fluorophore. In strong contrast, in the closed isomers the BODIPY emission is efficiently quenched but the deactivation mechanism depends on the nature of the linker. The most promising dyad was rendered water-soluble by means of micellar encapsulation and aqueous suspensions were investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy. Our results (i) illustrate that the electronic communication between the BODIPY and DAE units can indeed be fine-tuned by the nature of the linker to achieve fluorescence modulation while maintaining photoswitchability and (ii) highlight potential applications to image and control biological processes with high spatio-temporal resolution.
Influenza A virus is a pathogen responsible for severe seasonal epidemics threatening human and animal populations every year. One of the ten major proteins encoded by the viral genome, the matrix protein M1, is abundantly produced in infected cells and plays a structural role in determining the morphology of the virus. During assembly of new viral particles, M1 is recruited to the host cell membrane where it associates with lipids and other viral proteins. The structure of M1 is only partially known. In particular, structural details of M1 interactions with the cellular plasma membrane as well as M1 protein interactions and multimerization have not been clarified, yet. In this work, we employed a set of complementary experimental and theoretical tools to tackle these issues. Using raster image correlation, surface plasmon resonance and circular dichroism spectroscopies, we quantified membrane association and oligomerization of full-length M1 and of different genetically engineered M1 constructs (i.e., N- and C-terminally truncated constructs and a mutant of the polybasic region, residues 95-105). Furthermore, we report novel information on structural changes in M1 occurring upon binding to membranes. Our experimental results are corroborated by an all-atom model of the full-length M1 protein bound to a negatively charged lipid bilayer.