0000000000267791
AUTHOR
Kiyoshi Yagi
Retinal Vibrations in Bacteriorhodopsin are Mechanically Harmonic but Electrically Anharmonic: Evidence From Overtone and Combination Bands
Fundamental vibrations of the chromophore in the membrane protein bacteriorhodopsin (BR), a protonated Schiff base retinal, have been studied for decades, both by resonance Raman and by infrared (IR) difference spectroscopy. Such studies started comparing vibrational changes between the initial BR state (all-trans retinal) and the K intermediate (13-cis retinal), being later extended to the rest of intermediates. They contributed to our understanding of the proton-pumping mechanism of BR by exploiting the sensitivity of fundamental vibrational transitions of the retinal to its conformation. Here, we report on new bands in the 2,500 to 1,800 cm−1 region of the K-BR difference FT-IR spectrum.…
Retinal vibrations in bacteriorhodopsin are mechanically harmonic but electronically anharmonic: evidence from overtone and combination bands
AbstractVibrations of the chromophore in the membrane protein bacteriorhodopsin (BR), a protonated Schiff base retinal, have been studied for decades, both by resonance Raman and by infrared (IR) difference spectroscopy. In spite the light-induced IR difference spectrum between the K intermediate (13-cis retinal) and the initial BR state (all-trans retinal) being first published almost 40 years ago, we present here unreported bands in the 2500 to 1800 cm−1 region. We show that the bands between 2500 and 2300 cm−1 originate from overtone and combination transitions of retinal C-C stretches. We assigned some of the newly reported bands below 2300 cm−1 to the combination of retinal C-C stretch…