Publications

Deep learning study of tyrosine reveals that roaming can lead to photodamage

Author(s)
Julia Westermayr, Michael Gastegger, Dora Voros, Lisa Panzenboeck, Florian Joerg, Leticia Gonzalez, Philipp Marquetand
Abstract

Amino acids are among the building blocks of life, forming peptides and proteins, and have been carefully 'selected' to prevent harmful reactions caused by light. To prevent photodamage, molecules relax from electronic excited states to the ground state faster than the harmful reactions can occur; however, such photochemistry is not fully understood, in part because theoretical simulations of such systems are extremely expensive-with only smaller chromophores accessible. Here, we study the excited-state dynamics of tyrosine using a method based on deep neural networks that leverages the physics underlying quantum chemical data and combines different levels of theory. We reveal unconventional and dynamically controlled 'roaming' dynamics in excited tyrosine that are beyond chemical intuition and compete with other ultrafast deactivation mechanisms. Our findings suggest that the roaming atoms are radicals that can lead to photodamage, offering a new perspective on the photostability and photodamage of biological systems.

Organisation(s)
Department of Theoretical Chemistry, Department of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Computational Biological Chemistry, Research Platform Accelerating Photoreaction Discovery, Research Network Data Science
External organisation(s)
University of Warwick, Technische Universität Berlin
Journal
Nature Chemistry
Volume
14
Pages
914-919
No. of pages
6
ISSN
1755-4330
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-022-00950-z
Publication date
2022
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
104016 Photochemistry, 106032 Photobiology
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Chemical Engineering(all), Chemistry(all)
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/deep-learning-study-of-tyrosine-reveals-that-roaming-can-lead-to-photodamage(7c16b5c9-bc0a-4cea-aebf-7e0a62fda64c).html