Search results for "opsins"
showing 6 items of 26 documents
Proton Transfer and Protein Conformation Dynamics in Photosensitive Proteins by Time-resolved Step-scan Fourier-transform Infrared Spectroscopy
2014
Monitoring the dynamics of protonation and protein backbone conformation changes during the function of a protein is an essential step towards understanding its mechanism. Protonation and conformational changes affect the vibration pattern of amino acid side chains and of the peptide bond, respectively, both of which can be probed by infrared (IR) difference spectroscopy. For proteins whose function can be repetitively and reproducibly triggered by light, it is possible to obtain infrared difference spectra with (sub)microsecond resolution over a broad spectral range using the step-scan Fourier transform infrared technique. With -10(2)-10(3) repetitions of the photoreaction, the minimum num…
Rhodopsin transport in the membrane of the connecting cilium of mammalian photoreceptor cells
2000
The transport of the photopigment rhodopsin from the inner segment to the photosensitive outer segment of vertebrate photoreceptor cells has been one of the main remaining mysteries in photoreceptor cell biology. Because of the lack of any direct evidence for the pathway through the photoreceptor cilium, alternative extracellular pathways have been proposed. Our primary aim in the present study was to resolve rhodopsin trafficking from the inner to the outer segment. We demonstrate, predominantly by high-sensitive immunoelectron microscopy, that rhodopsin is also densely packed in the membrane of the photoreceptor connecting cilium. Present prominent labeling of rhodopsin in the ciliary mem…
Protein dynamics observed by tunable mid-IR quantum cascade lasers across the time range from 10 ns to 1 s
2017
We have developed a spectrometer based on tunable quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) for recording time-resolved absorption spectra of proteins in the mid-infrared range. We illustrate its performance by recording time-resolved difference spectra of bacteriorhodopsin in the carboxylic range (1800–1700 cm− 1) and on the CO rebinding reaction of myoglobin (1960–1840 cm− 1), at a spectral resolution of 1 cm− 1. The spectrometric setup covers the time range from 4 ns to nearly a second with a response time of 10–15 ns. Absorption changes as low as 1 × 10− 4 are detected in single-shot experiments at t > 1 μs, and of 5 × 10− 6 in kinetics obtained after averaging 100 shots. While previous time-res…
Retinal Vibrations in Bacteriorhodopsin are Mechanically Harmonic but Electrically Anharmonic: Evidence From Overtone and Combination Bands
2021
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.…
Data from: Key roles for freshwater Actinobacteria revealed by deep metagenomic sequencing
2014
Freshwaters ecosystems are critical but fragile environments directly affecting society and its welfare. However, our understanding of genuinely freshwater microbial communities, constrained by our capacity to manipulate its prokaryotic participants in axenic cultures, remains very rudimentary. Even the most abundant components, freshwater Actinobacteria, remain largely unknown. Here, applying deep metagenomic sequencing to the microbial community of a freshwater reservoir, we were able to circumvent this traditional bottleneck and reconstruct de novo seven distinct streamlined actinobacterial genomes. These genomes represent three new groups of photoheterotrophic, planktonic Actinobacteria…
Transcriptional study of photoperiodic response in aphids and characterization of candidate photoperiodic photoreceptors
2020
Acyrthosiphon pisum es una especie de pulgón altamente estacional. Durante la estación favorable, únicamente se producen hembras partenogenéticas vivíparas (virginóparas). En otoño, cuando hay menos luz (el fotoperiodo es más corto), A. pisum percibe la diferencia y las virginóparas paren machos y luego hembras sexuadas (ovíparas). Tras aparearse, las ovíparas ponen huevos que resisten el invierno y eclosionan en primavera, reiniciando el ciclo. Algunos mutantes que ocurren de forma natural no responden al fotoperiodo y se reproducen asexualmente durante todo el año. Se denominan anholocíclicos en contraposición a los holocíclicos, que tienen fase sexual. Se desconocen los mecanismos molecu…