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A bright idea: A photoactivatable GFP variant has been developed by mutagenesis of the fluorophore tyrosine to a photocaged o-nitrobenzyl tyrosine. This protein is practically nonfluorescent until exposed to 365 nm light, which increases fluorescence nearly 100-fold. The quenching mechanism as suggested by crystallography and time-resolved UV/Vis spectroscopy is most likely due to photon-induced electron transfer to the nitrobenzyl group.
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Groff et al. (2010) studied this question.
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