Main photophysical properties of oxyblepharismin

Oxyblepharismin is the photo-oxidized form of blepharismin, the chromophore responsible for the photophobic response of heterotrich ciliate Blepharisma joponicum, and represents a nice model for the study of phototransduction. In this work, we focused on the photophysical characterization of OxyBP, in view of highlighting the main features related to excitation and emission. By a combined experimental and computational approach we identified the main features of absorption and fluorescence emission of the molecule in solvents of different properties, identifying the nature of transitions as well as the possible heterogeneity at ground/excited state. The thorough photophysical characterization of OxyBP is meant to provide the starting point for the elucidation of the photo-transduction pathway in vivo.