Conformational Switching Controls Biradical Spin Dynamics in Flavin-Tryptophan Dyads
Guzel Musabirova, Olga B. Morozova, Alexey S. Kiryutin, Irina S. Anisimova, Ivan V. Zhukov, Tobias Theiss, Luca Gerhards, Ben G. E. Zoller, Tanja Gulder, Jørg Matysik, Ilia A. Solov'yov, Alexandra V. Yurkovskaya
Journal of the American Chemical Society
148
15897-15910
2026
abstract
Flavin-tryptophan dyads linked by oligoproline chains were used to probe how proline cis-trans isomerization modulates spindynamics under photo-CIDNP conditions. Field-cycling NMR revealed that minor cis-containing conformers form compact geometries that support intramolecular biradical recombination. These states display the features of J-resonance photo-CIDNP: uniform emissive polarization and pronounced maxima at 5-20 mT, while their signals vanish at high fields. In contrast, the dominant all-trans (PPII) conformers and longer linkers produce only Δg-dominated patterns consistent with intermolecular radical encounters. Time-resolved photo-CIDNP confirmed that intermolecular processes prevail in most systems, with the fourproline dyad showing additional intramolecular contributions. The results establish that proline isomerization serves as a structural switch that governs the donor-acceptor distance and consequently, the balance between intra- and intermolecular spin-selective pathways. The study further highlights field-cycling photo-CIDNP as a promising tool for identifying transient biradical states in biomolecular model systems.
note

Paper selected for a cover