The flavin-adenine-dinucleotide-binding BLUF domain constitutes a new class of blue-light receptors, and the N-terminal domain of AppA is a representative of this family. AppA functions as a transcriptional antirepressor, controlling the photosynthesis gene expression in the purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Upon light absorption, AppA undergoes a photocycle with a signaling state, which exhibits an approximately 10 nm red shift in the UV-vis absorption spectrum. We have characterized light-dependent changes in the active site of an AppA BLUF domain by Raman spectroscopy. The present study has found that altered chromophore-protein interactions, including a hydrogen bond at the C4=O position and structural changes around the N10-ribityl side chain, are key events in this activation process. These structural alterations are proposed to be responsible for the transmission of the light signal in the BLUF domain. This is the first report on a signaling-state Raman spectrum of a blue-light photoreceptor with a flavin chromophore.

Crystal structure of ferroelectric silver niobate AgNbO3 was determined (Pmc21) by convergent beam electron, electron, neutron, and synchrotron diffraction techniques and first-principles calculations. The atomic displacements along the c axis in Pmc21 AgNbO3 are responsible for the spontaneous polarization, ferroelectricity, and the paraelectric−ferroelectric phase transition.

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Symmetries of nanometer-scale local structures in the rhombohedral and orthorhombic phases of potassium niobate (KNbO3) have been examined using convergent-beam electron diffraction. Nanometer-size local structures with rhombohedral symmetry have been discovered in the orthorhombic phase of KNbO3. It has been found that the structure of the orthorhombic phase of KNbO3 is formed as an average of two variants with rhombohedral symmetry. This fact indicates that the phase transformation between the orthorhombic and rhombohedral phases has an order-disorder character. The result is analogous to the case of BaTiO3, which we already reported [Tsuda et al., Phys. Rev. B 86, 214106 (2012)].