• Journal of Photoscience
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.302-304
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• 2002

pharaonis phoborhodopsin (ppR), a photophobic sensor of haloalkaliphilic bacteria, Natronobacterium phar-aonis, has retinal as a chromophore covalently bound to Lys in G-helix via a protonated Schiff base (PSB), as is the same as bacteriorhodopsin (bR). For ppR, the corresponding counter-ion is Asp residue (Asp75) located in C-helix. Here we investigated the influence of the protonated state of this counter-ion and its location on the chromophore configuration. Under alkaline condition, the chromophore configuration of D75E mutant was analyzed by HPLC. D75E had a much larger content of 13-cis isomer: the ratio of 13-cis to all-trans was 6:4 while the wild-type had this ratio of 1 :9. On the other hand, under acidic condition where Glu was associated, D75E had no 13-cis retinal isomer. Mutants whose Asp75 was replaced by neutral amino acids (D75N and D75Q) did not contain 13-cis retinal. Furthermore, retinal isomer compositions and the change in the visible ab- sorption spectra (indicating the dissociation state of Glu75) were measured under varying pH, and these were almost the same dependencies. These results indicate that an important factor determining the 13-cis isomer content is the presence of negative charge of the counter-ion against PSB, but not the size of this residue. Com- parison between the wild-type and D75E in alkaline solutions indicates the influence of the location of the counter-ion.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제22권7호
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• pp.863-870
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• 2012

세포막 단백질 중 가장 큰 family를 형성하는 G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)는 세포 외부의 다양한 신호를 세포 내 G 단백질의 활성화를 통하여 전달한다. 외부 신호자극이 없는 조건에서도 활성을 나타내는 항활성 돌연변이(constitutively active mutants, CAM)는 GPCR 신호전달 이상으로 인한 질병 치료나 GPCR의 활성화 구조연구에 좋은 대상이다. 본 연구는 시각수용체 로돕신에서 약한 항활성을 보이는 CAM의 하나인 E134Q/M257Y를 대상으로, inverse agonist와 agonist 존재 하에서 형성하는 두 가지 chromophore의 특성을 연구하였다. 이 CAM은 11-cis-retinal과 all-trans-retinal 존재 하에서 각기 최대흡광도가 500 nm와 380 nm인 로돕신을 형성한다. 두 가지 retinal을 다양한 비로 혼합한 조건과 연속적으로 결합하는 조건 하에서 각 형태의 로돕신 형성을 조사한 결과 E134Q/M257Y mutant는 11-cis-retinal과 우선적으로 결합함을 보여준다. E134Q/M257Y mutant는 wild type 옵신에 비해 11-cis-retinal에 대한 친화도는 별다른 차이가 없으나 옵신과 로돕신 상태의 안정성이 낮음이 확인되었다. 본 연구 결과는 GPCR의 활성화 시 일어나는 부분적 구조변화에 대한 정보를 제공하고, 구조정보에 기반한 GPCR신호를 미세하게 조절하는 물질의 발굴이나 개발에 유용하게 이용될 것이다.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.71-76
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• 1996

Anil K. Singh, Mrunalini M. Kapil, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay - 400076, INDIA Purple membrane (PM, $\lambda$$_{max}$ 570 nm) of H. halobium on treatment with sulphuric acid changes its colour to blue ($\lambda$$_{max}$ 608 nm). The purple chromophore can be regenerated from the blue chromophore by exogeneous addition of anions such as CI$^-$ and HPO$_4^{2-}$. Chloride ion is found to be more effective than the dibasic phosphate ion in regenerating the purple chromophore. Nevertheless, one thing common to the anion regeneration is that both CI$^-$ and HPO$_4^{2-}$ show marked pH effect. At pH 1.0 the efficiency of regeneration of the purple chromophore is greater than at pH 2.0, for the same anion concentration. Fluorescence and circular dichroic studies indicate that the proteins do not undergo drastic changes at the secondary' or tertiary structure level and the native structure is preserved during this transition. However, chromophoric-site interactions between retinal and the apoprotein are affected during this colour transition. A molecular mechanism is advanced for this transition.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.106-109
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• 2002

Archaeal rhodopsins possess retinal molecule as their chromophores, and their light-energy and light-signal conversions are triggered by all-trans to 13-cis isomerization of the retinal chromophore. Relaxation through structural changes of protein then leads to functional processes, proton pump in bacteriorhodopsin (bR) and transducer activation in phoborhodopsin (pR). It is known that sensory rhodopsins can pump protons in the absence of their transducers. Thus, there should be common and specific features in their protein structural changes for function. In this paper, our r ecent studies on pR from Natronobacterium pharaonis (ppR) by means of low-temperature Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy are compared with those of bR. In particular, protein structural changes upon retinal photoisomerization are studied. Comparative investigation of ppR and bR revealed the similar structures of the polyene chain of the chromophore and water-containing hydrogen-bonding network, whereas the structural changes upon photoisomerization were more extended in ppR than in bR. Extended protein structural changes were clearly shown by the assignment of the C=O stretch of Asnl05. FTIR studies of a ppR mutant with the same retinal binding site as in bR revealed that the Schiff base region is important to determine their colors.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제17권6호통권86호
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• pp.783-790
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• 2007

G protein-coupled receptor, (GPCR)는 세포외부의 신호를 인식 시 G 단백질을 활성화시켜 신호를 전달하며 kinase에 의한 인산화를 통하여 지속적인 신호전달을 억제한다. 외부 신호물질이 없는 조건에서도 활성을 나타내는 항활성 돌연변이종(CAM)은 GPCR의 신호전달 이상에 기인한 질병 치료나 활성화 구조변화의 좋은 연구대상이다. 희미한 빛을 인식하는 시각수용체인 로돕신의 CAM으로는 salt bridge에 직접적인 영향을 미치는 돌연변이인 G90D, El13Q, 그리고 K296E와, 직접적인 영향이 없는 돌연변이인 E134q와 M25Y등 두 가지 계통의 종류가 알려져 있다. 본 연구에서는 각각의 돌연변이가 복합된 mutant를 구성하여 agonist와 inverse agonist에 대한친화도와 로돕신 kinase에 대한 활성을 조사하여 각 종에서의 구조변화의 차이를 분석하였다. 로돕신 mutant의constitutive activity는 all-trans-retinal에 대한 친화도에 비례하며 11-cis-retinal에 대한 친화도와는 역상관 관계를 보여준다. 같은 계통에 속하는 돌연변이가 합쳐진 복합 mutant는 단일 mutant에 비하여 미약한 정도의 로돕신 kinase 항활성화 증가를 보여주나, 다른 계통에 속하는 두 가지 돌연변이가 합쳐진 mutant는 항활성화가 크게 증가되었음을 보여주었다. 이 결과는 다른 계통에 속하는 mutant에서는 상이한 구조변화가 일어나며 로돕신이완전한 활성화에 이르기 위해서는 최소한 두 가지 종류의 돌연변이에 의하여 생기는 구조변화들이 함께 일어나야함을 의 미 한다. G protein 활성화와 유사한 항활성화 분석 결과는 rhodopsin kinase가 인식하는 로돕신의 활성화상태 구조가 G protein이 인식하는 구조와 유사함을 의미한다. 특히 가장 강한 활성을 나타내는 El13Q/E134Q/M257Y는 활성화상태 GPCR 단백질의 결정 시도에 이용 될 수 있을 것이다.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.51-54
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• 2002

We propose a novel mechanism (Twist Sharing Mechanism) for the cis-trans photoisomerization of rhodopsin, based on the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation study. New things devised in our simulations are (1) the adoption of Mt. Fuji potentials in the excited state for twisting of the three bonds C9=C10, C11=C12 and C13=14 which are modeled using the detailed ab initio quantum chemical calculations and (2) to use the rhodopsin structure which was resolved recently by the X-ray crystallographic study. As a result, we found the followings: Due to the intramolecular steric hindrance between 20-methyl and 10-H in the retinal chromophore, the C12-C13 and C10-C11 bonds are considerably twisted counterclockwise in rhodopsin, allowing only counterclockwise rotation of the C11 =C12 in the excited state. The movement of 19-methyl in rhodopsin is blocked by the surrounding three amino acids, Thr 118, Met 207 and Tyr 268, prohibiting the rotation of C9=C10. As a result only all-trans form of the chromophore is obtainable as a photoproduct. At the 90$^{\circ}$ twisting of C11=C12 in the course of photoisomerization, twisting energies of the other bonds amount to about 20 kcal/mol. If the transition state for the thermal isomerization is assumed to be similar to this structure, the activation energy for the thermal isomerization around C11=C12'in rhodopsin is elevated by about 20 kcal/mol and the thermal isomerization rate is decelerated by 10$\^$-14/ times than that of the retinal chromophore in solution, protecting photosignal from the thermal noise.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.138-145
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• 2007

Anabaena sensory rhodopsin is a seven transmembrane protein that uses all-trans/13-cis retinal as a chromophore. About 22 residues in the retinal-binding pocket of microbial rhodopsins are conserved and important to control the quality of absorbing light and the function of ion transport or sensory transduction. The absorption maximum is 550 nm in the presence of all-trans retinal at dark. Here, we mutated Pro206 to Glu or Asp, of which the residue is conserved as Asp among all other microbial rhodopsins, and the absorption maximum and pKa of the proton acceptor group were measured by absorption spectroscopy at various pHs. Anabaena rhodopsin was expressed best in Escherichia coli in the absence of extra leader sequence when exogenous all-trans retinal was added. The wild-type Anabaena rhodopsin showed small absorption maximum changes between pH4 and 11. In addition, Pro206Asp showed 46 nm blue-shift at pH7.0. Pro206Glu or Asp may change the contribution to the electron distribution of the retinal that is involved in the major role of color tuning for this pigment. The critical residue Ser86 (Asp 96 position in bacteriorhodopsin: proton donor) for the pumping activity was replaced with Asp, but it did not change the proton pumping activity of Anabaena rhodopsin.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제30권5호
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• pp.633-641
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• 2020

Microbial rhodopsins are a superfamily of photoactive membrane proteins with the covalently bound retinal cofactor. Isomerization of the retinal chromophore upon absorption of a photon triggers conformational changes of the protein to function as ion pumps or sensors. After the discovery of proteorhodopsin in an uncultivated γ-proteobacterium, light-activated proton pumps have been widely detected among marine bacteria and, together with chlorophyll-based photosynthesis, are considered as an important axis responsible for primary production in the biosphere. Rhodopsins and related proteins show a high level of phylogenetic diversity; we focus on a specific class of bacterial rhodopsins containing the '3 omega motif.' This motif forms a stack of three non-consecutive aromatic amino acids that correlates with the B-C loop orientation and is shared among the phylogenetically close ion pumps such as the NDQ motif-containing sodium-pumping rhodopsin, the NTQ motif-containing chloride-pumping rhodopsin, and some proton-pumping rhodopsins including xanthorhodopsin. Here, we reviewed the recent research progress on these 'omega rhodopsins,' and speculated on their evolutionary origin of functional diversity.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.33-36
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• 2002

In vertebrate rhodopsins the glutamic acid at position 113 serves as a counterion to stabilize the protonated retinylidene Schiff base linkage and to shift the spectrum to the visible region. Invertebrate rhodopsins and retinochrome have the amino acid residue different from glutamic acid or asparatic acid at this position and therefore, these pigments may have a counterion at different position. We first investigated the counterion in retinochrome by site specific mutagenesis. The results showed that the counterion is the glutamic acid at position 181, where almost of all the pigments including vertebrate and invertebrate rhodopsins in the rhodopsin family have a glutamic acid or an aspartic acid. In vertebrate rhodopsins, however, Glu 181 does not act as a counterion, and the red-sensitive cone pigments have a histidine at this position, which serves as a chloride-binding site for red-shift of the absorption spectrum. These findings suggested that the role of Glu181 as a counterion may be weakened by the newly acquired counterion at position 113. Taken together with our recent studies on an invertebrate-type rhodopsin, the rhodopsin diversity was discussed from viewpoint of counterion.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.534-536
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• 2002

A halophilic archaeon, Halobacterium salinarum, exhibits phototactic behaviors, by which the organism is guided to red-orange light and evades shorter wavelengths of light. The phototaxis is mediated by two retinal proteins, sensory rhodopsin I and II (SRI and SRII), whose structures are analogous to the cognate protein bacteriorhodopsin, a light-driven proton pump. SRI mediates both attractant and repellent swimming behaviors to orange light and near- UV light, respectively. The two different signaling through the single photoreceptor have been ascribed to the presence of two active structures of SRI (S$\_$373/ and P$\_$520), which are produced upon orange light illumination of SRI and upon subsequent near-UV illumination of S$\_$373/, respectively. In the present study, we have measured the difference FTIR spectra of S$\_$373/ and P$\_$520/ states. In P$\_$520/, the isomeric structure of the chromophore is assignable to all-trans, and the Schiff base of the chromophore is protonated with concomitant deprotonation of Asp76, a combination which allows for the formation of a salt bridge between them. It was suggested that the way of interaction between the Schiff base and the counterion, which is different among SRI$\_$587/, S$\_$373/ and P$\_$520/ and which has been shown to drive the conformational changes in the cognate protein, bacteriorhodopsin, is the key to controlling conformational changes for the attractant and the repellent signaling by SRI.