Structural mechanism governing radiationless energy transfer in Renilla bioluminescence

The nonradiative transport of electronic excitation from one chromophore to another, known as resonance energy transfer, lies at the root of photochemical processes in biology. Unlike photosynthesis, bioluminescence converts chemical energy into light through an enzymatic oxygenation of an energy-rich luciferin. In glowing cnidarians, the energy is relocated from an excited oxyluciferin to a fluorescent protein, shifting the colour and enhancing the quantum yield of a photogenic reaction. How protein-chromophore complexes assemble during this interplay in real space, and what this association entails for function, are unknown. Here, we report co-crystal structures of a 120-kilodalton energy-transfer complex from the luminescent soft coral Renilla reniformis. We find a heterotetrameric 2:2 assembly composed of two coelenteramide-loaded luciferases (RrLuc) docked at opposite sides of a head-to-tail dimer of green fluorescent protein (RrGFP). The edge-to-edge distance between donor and acceptor chromophores is below 3 nm, favouring the Forster-type radiationless energy transfer. Furthermore, RrGFP serves not only as a colour-switchable antenna and luminescence amplifier but also tunes the efficiency of luciferase catalysis by controlling its inherent dynamics. Our results provide detailed spatial information about intermolecular dipole-dipole coupling in Renilla bioluminescence, including the arrangement of donor-acceptor pairs that secure excited-state energy transfer with exquisite precision.