Light-driven proton pump bacteriorhodopsin

Bacteriorhodopsin contains seven transmembrane a helices Bacteriorhodopsin is a light-driven proton pump... 

ITowever, membrane proteins can also be distributed in nonrandom ways across the surface of a membrane. This can occur for several reasons. Some proteins must interact intimately with certain other proteins, forming multisubunit complexes that perform specific functions in the membrane. A few integral membrane proteins are known to self-associate in the membrane, forming large multimeric clusters. Bacteriorhodopsin, a light-driven proton pump protein, forms such clusters, known as purple patches, in the membranes of Halobacterium halobium (Eigure 9.9). The bacteriorhodopsin protein in these purple patches forms highly ordered, two-dimensional crystals. 

When Mitchell first described his chemiosmotic hypothesis in 1961, little evidence existed to support it, and it was met with considerable skepticism by the scientific community. Eventually, however, considerable evidence accumulated to support this model. It is now clear that the electron transport chain generates a proton gradient, and careful measurements have shown that ATP is synthesized when a pH gradient is applied to mitochondria that cannot carry out electron transport. Even more relevant is a simple but crucial experiment reported in 1974 by Efraim Racker and Walther Stoeckenius, which provided specific confirmation of the Mitchell hypothesis. In this experiment, the bovine mitochondrial ATP synthasereconstituted in simple lipid vesicles with bac-teriorhodopsin, a light-driven proton pump from Halobaeterium halobium. As shown in Eigure 21.28, upon illumination, bacteriorhodopsin pumped protons... 

The CP MAS NMR spectroscopy has been also extensively used for studies of proteins containing retinylidene chromophore like proteorhodopsin or bacteriorhodopsin. Bacteriorhodopsin is a protein component of purple membrane of Halobacterium salinarium.71 7 This protein contains 248 amino acids residues, forming a 7-helix bundle and a retinal chromophore covalently bound to Lys-216 via a Schiff base linkage. It is a light-driven proton pump that translocates protons from the inside to the outside of the cell. After photoisomerization of retinal, the reaction cycle is described by several intermediate states (J, K, L, M, N, O). Between L and M intermediate states, a proton transfer takes place from the protonated Schiff base to the anionic Asp85 at the central part of the protein. In the M and/or N intermediate states, the global conformational changes of the protein backbone take place. 

Proton gradients can be built up in various ways. A very unusual type is represented by bacteriorhodopsin (1), a light-driven proton pump that various bacteria use to produce energy. As with rhodopsin in the eye, the light-sensitive component used here is covalently bound retinal (see p. 358). In photosynthesis (see p. 130), reduced plastoquinone (QH2) transports protons, as well as electrons, through the membrane (Q cycle, 2). The formation of the proton gradient by the respiratory chain is also coupled to redox processes (see p. 140). In complex III, a Q,cycle is responsible for proton translocation (not shown). In cytochrome c oxidase (complex IV, 3), trans-... 

D. Oesterhett, Bacteriorhodopsin as an example of a light driven proton pump , Angew Chem. int. Edit, 15, 1976, 17. 

FIGURE 19-59 Light-driven proton pumping by bacteriorhodopsin. 

Halorhodopsiti. In addition to bacteriorhodopsin there are three other retinal-containing proteins in membranes of halobacteria. From mutant strains lacking bacteriorhodopsin the second protein, halorhodopsin, has been isolated. It acts as a light-driven chloride ion pump, transporting Cl from outside to inside. Potassium ions follow, and the pump provides a means for these bacteria to accumulate KC1 to balance the high external osmotic pressure of the environment in which they live.578 The amino acid sequences of halorhodopsins from several species are very similar to those of bacteriorhodopsin as is the three-dimensional structure.589 However, the important proton-carrying residues D85 and D96 of bacteriorhodopsin are replaced by threonine and alanine, respectively, in halorhodopsin.590 Halorhodopsin (hR)... 

The incorporation of a membrane protein into a polymerizable liposome from (22) was demonstrated by R. Pabst n9). The chromoprotein bacteriorhodopsin — a light-driven proton pump from halophilic bacteria — was incorporated into monomeric sulfolipid liposomes by ultrasonication. The resulting proteoliposomes were poly-... 

A three-dimensional structure also has been elucidated for bacteriorhodopsin, an integral membrane protein of the halophilic (salt-loving) bacterium Halobacterium halobium. This protein has been studied intensively because of its remarkable activity as a light-driven proton pump (see chapter 14). It forms well-ordered arrays in two-dimensional sheets that can be studied by electron diffraction. Measurements of the diffraction patterns show clearly that bacteriorhodopsin has seven transmembrane helices (fig. 17.12). 

Birge, R. R., Nature of the primary photochemical events in rhodopsin and bacteriorhodopsin. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1016 293, 1990. A review covering rhodopsin s structure, spectroscopic properties and responses to light. This article also discusses the closely related protein, bacteriorhodopsin, which serves as a light-driven proton pump in halo-philic bacteria. 

Another unique property of at least some of the halobacteria is the ability to grow phototrophically by employing the light-driven proton pump bacteriorhodopsin. The proton gradient that is produced is used directly to generate ATP (Hartmann et al., 1980 Oesterhelt and Kripphal, 1983). Photoassimilation of CO2 by halobacteria was shown by Danon and Caplan (1977) and Oren (1983). In vivo C02 fixation was demonstrated by Javor (1988) and the existence of the enzyme ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase activity in several halobacteria was shown by Altekar and Rajagopalan (1990). 

Many of the early genetic studies were done on H. halobium and its related strains. The popularity of these strains stemmed from the fact that several interesting spontaneous mutations could be readily detected. Among the most characterized mutations are those that affect the production of the protein part of the purple membrane, the heavily studied light-driven proton pump bacteriorhodopsin. Spontaneous mutations occur at a frequency of lO 4. Analysis of these mutations showed that in almost every case a foreign DNA sequence was introduced into the bacterioopsin (bop) structural gene or into sequences surrounding it. 

Light is indispensable for life. Green plants and some bacteria use solar energy for the energy source in their photosynthesis [1-3]. Archeal bacteriorhodopsin is a membrane bound protein and works as a light-driven proton pump [4, 5]. Another role of light is information carrier that is recognized in vision and photo-sensors. 

Lanyi, J. K. (1998). Understanding structure and function in the light-driven proton pump bacteriorhodopsin./ Struct. Biol. 124, 164—178. 

Bacteriorhodopsin, a light-driven proton pump, is a large (27000 Dalton) membrane protein, located in the purple membrane of halobacterium halobium (for a recent review see Lanyi, 1993). It spans the membrane by seven-a-helices (see Fig 6.6-7). The chro-mophore retinal is embedded inside the protein, shielded by the helices. Retinal connects to the Lys 216 of the protein via a protonated Schiff s base (Fig. 6.6-7). 

Mathies RA, Lin SW, Ames JB, Pollard WT. From femtoseconds to biology mechanism of bacteriorhodopsin s light-driven proton pump. Annu. Rev. Biophys. Biophys. Chem. 1991 20 491-518. 

Furthermore, many carotenoid metabolites exist that have distinct functions. One such example shown in Fig. 3 is retinal, the chromophore of visual pigments (rhodopsins) and the light-driven proton pump, bacteriorhodopsin. Other examples are the plant hormone, abscisic acid, or volatile compounds that contribute to the fragrance of roses, for example. 

Figure 18.26. Testing the Chemiosmotic Hypothesis. ATP is synthesized when reconstituted membrane vesicles containing bacteriorhodopsin (a light-driven proton pump) and ATP synthase are illuminated. The orientation of ATP synthase in this reconstituted membrane is the reverse of that in the mitochondrion.

Fig. 1.2. The idealized bacteriorhodopsin liposome containing a light-driven proton pump in a membrane with some proton, K, Cl, HCl conductance and allowing some exchange.

It is instructive to compare this result with that obtained by considering the bacteriorhodopsin liposomes as a black box, with gradients of H, K, Cl and their associated forces, plus the light-driven proton pump with its associated force. According to phenomenological thermodynamics, we would described such a system by the following set of equations in matrix form ... 

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