Ab initio quantum-chemical study on emission spectra of bioluminescent luciferases by fragment molecular orbital method

Bioluminescence spectra of firefly Luciola cruciata were theoretically analyzed on the basis of the fragment molecular orbital (FMO) method. The CIS(D) and PR-CIS(Ds) methods were employed for the calculations of emission energies of wild-type and mutant luciferase–oxyluciferin systems, and various multi-layer FMO calculations were performed changing the sizes of the luciferase protein and of the chromophore to which the excited-state calculations were applied. We have thus reproduced the experimental emission energies of wild-type and mutant luciferase systems with good accuracy, which provides useful information concerning the roles of protein environment for the color tuning of the bioluminescence spectra of firefly.