Chimeric microbial rhodopsins containing the third cytoplasmic loop of bovine rhodopsin

Highly sensitive visual restoration and protection via ectopic expression of chimeric rhodopsin in mice

Photoreception requires amplification by mammalian rhodopsin through G protein activation, which requires a visual cycle. To achieve this in retinal gene therapy, we incorporated human rhodopsin cytoplasmic loops into Gloeobacter rhodopsin, thereby generating Gloeobacter and human chimeric rhodopsin (GHCR). In a murine model of inherited retinal degeneration, we induced retinal GHCR expression by intravitreal injection of a recombinant adeno-associated virus vector. Retinal explant and visual thalamus electrophysiological recordings, behavioral tests, and histological analysis showed that GHCR restored dim-environment vision and prevented the progression of retinal degeneration. Thus, GHCR may be a potent clinical tool for the treatment of retinal disorders.

Rhodopsins: An Excitingly Versatile Protein Species for Research, Development and Creative Engineering

The first member and eponym of the rhodopsin family was identified in the 1930s as the visual pigment of the rod photoreceptor cell in the animal retina. It was found to be a membrane protein, owing its photosensitivity to the presence of a covalently bound chromophoric group. This group, derived from vitamin A, was appropriately dubbed retinal. In the 1970s a microbial counterpart of this species was discovered in an archaeon, being a membrane protein also harbouring retinal as a chromophore, and named bacteriorhodopsin. Since their discovery a photogenic panorama unfolded, where up to date new members and subspecies with a variety of light-driven functionality have been added to this family. The animal branch, meanwhile categorized as type-2 rhodopsins, turned out to form a large subclass in the superfamily of G protein-coupled receptors and are essential to multiple elements of light-dependent animal sensory physiology. The microbial branch, the type-1 rhodopsins, largely function as light-driven ion pumps or channels, but also contain sensory-active and enzyme-sustaining subspecies. In this review we will follow the development of this exciting membrane protein panorama in a representative number of highlights and will present a prospect of their extraordinary future potential.

Oligomeric states of microbial rhodopsins determined by high-speed atomic force microscopy and circular dichroic spectroscopy

Oligomeric assembly is a common feature of membrane proteins and often relevant to their physiological functions. Determining the stoichiometry and the oligomeric state of membrane proteins in a lipid bilayer is generally challenging because of their large size, complexity, and structural alterations under experimental conditions. Here, we use high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM) to directly observe the oligomeric states in the lipid membrane of various microbial rhodopsins found within eubacteria to archaea. HS-AFM images show that eubacterial rhodopsins predominantly exist as pentamer forms, while archaeal rhodopsins are trimers in the lipid membrane. In addition, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy reveals that pentameric rhodopsins display inverted CD couplets compared to those of trimeric rhodopsins, indicating different types of exciton coupling of the retinal chromophore in each oligomer. The results clearly demonstrate that the stoichiometry of the fundamental oligomer of microbial rhodopsins strongly correlate with the phylogenetic tree, providing a new insight into the relationship between the oligomeric structure and function-structural evolution of microbial rhodopsins.

Chimeric microbial rhodopsins for optical activation of Gs-proteins

We previously showed that the chimeric proteins of microbial rhodopsins, such as light-driven proton pump bacteriorhodopsin (BR) and Gloeobacter rhodopsin (GR) that contain cytoplasmic loops of bovine rhodopsin, are able to activate Gt protein upon light absorption. These facts suggest similar protein structural changes in both the light-driven proton pump and animal rhodopsin. Here we report two trials to engineer chimeric rhodopsins, one for the inserted loop, and another for the microbial rhodopsin template. For the former, we successfully activated Gs protein by light through the incorporation of the cytoplasmic loop of β₂-adrenergic receptor (β₂AR). For the latter, we did not observe any G-protein activation for the light-driven sodium pump from Indibacter alkaliphilus (IndiR2) or a light-driven chloride pump halorhodopsin from Natronomonas pharaonis (NpHR), whereas the light-driven proton pump GR showed light-dependent G-protein activation. This fact suggests that a helix opening motion is common to G protein coupled receptor (GPCR) and GR, but not to IndiR2 and NpHR. Light-induced difference FTIR spectroscopy revealed similar structural changes between WT and the third loop chimera for each light-driven pump. A helical structural perturbation, which was largest for GR, was further enhanced in the chimera. We conclude that similar structural dynamics that occur on the cytoplasmic side of GPCR are needed to design chimeric microbial rhodopsins.

Conversion of microbial rhodopsins: insights into functionally essential elements and rational protein engineering

Technological progress has enabled the successful application of functional conversion to a variety of biological molecules, such as nucleotides and proteins. Such studies have revealed the functionally essential elements of these engineered molecules, which are difficult to characterize at the level of an individual molecule. The functional conversion of biological molecules has also provided a strategy for their rational and atomistic design. The engineered molecules can be used in studies to improve our understanding of their biological functions and to develop protein-based tools. In this review, we introduce the functional conversion of membrane-embedded photoreceptive retinylidene proteins (also called rhodopsins) and discuss these proteins mainly on the basis of results obtained from our own studies. This information provides insights into the molecular mechanism of light-induced protein functions and their use in optogenetics, a technology which involves the use of light to control biological activities.

Functional role of positively selected amino acid substitutions in mammalian rhodopsin evolution

Visual rhodopsins are membrane proteins that function as light photoreceptors in the vertebrate retina. Specific amino acids have been positively selected in visual pigments during mammal evolution, which, as products of adaptive selection, would be at the base of important functional innovations. We have analyzed the top candidates for positive selection at the specific amino acids and the corresponding reverse changes (F13M, Q225R and A346S) in order to unravel the structural and functional consequences of these important sites in rhodopsin evolution. We have constructed, expressed and immunopurified the corresponding mutated pigments and analyzed their molecular phenotypes. We find that position 13 is very important for the folding of the receptor and also for proper protein glycosylation. Position 225 appears to be important for the function of the protein affecting the G-protein activation process, and position 346 would also regulate functionality of the receptor by enhancing G-protein activation and presumably affecting protein phosphorylation by rhodopsin kinase. Our results represent a link between the evolutionary analysis, which pinpoints the specific amino acid positions in the adaptive process, and the structural and functional analysis, closer to the phenotype, making biochemical sense of specific selected genetic sequences in rhodopsin evolution.

Microbial rhodopsins: wide distribution, rich diversity and great potential

One of the major topics in biophysics and physicobiology is to understand and utilize biological functions using various advanced techniques. Taking advantage of the photoreactivity of the seven-transmembrane rhodopsin protein family has been actively investigated by a variety of methods. Rhodopsins serve as models for membrane-embedded proteins, for photoactive proteins and as a fundamental tool for optogenetics, a new technology to control biological activity with light. In this review, we summarize progress of microbial rhodopsin research from the viewpoint of distribution, diversity and potential.

Chimeric proton-pumping rhodopsins containing the cytoplasmic loop of bovine rhodopsin

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) transmit stimuli to intracellular signaling systems. Rhodopsin (Rh), which is a prototypical GPCR, possesses an 11-cis retinal. Photoisomerization of 11-cis to all-trans leads to structural changes in the protein of cytoplasmic loops, activating G-protein. Microbial rhodopsins are similar heptahelical membrane proteins that function as bacterial sensors, light-driven ion-pumps, or light-gated channels. They possess an all-trans retinal, and photoisomerization to 13-cis triggers structural changes in protein. Despite these similarities, there is no sequence homology between visual and microbial rhodopsins, and microbial rhodopsins do not activate G-proteins. In this study, new chimeric proton-pumping rhodopsins, proteorhodopsin (PR) and Gloeobacter rhodopsin (GR) were designed by replacing cytoplasmic loops with bovine Rh loops. Although G-protein was not activated by the PR chimeras, all 12 GR chimeras activated G-protein. The GR chimera containing the second cytoplasmic loop of bovine Rh did not activate G-protein. However, the chimera with a second and third double-loop further enhanced G-protein activation. Introduction of an E132Q mutation slowed the photocycle 30-fold and enhanced activation. The highest catalytic activity of the GR chimera was still 3,200 times lower than bovine Rh but only 64 times lower than amphioxus Go-rhodopsin. This GR chimera showed a strong absorption change of the amide-I band on a light-minus-dark difference FTIR spectrum which could represent a larger helical opening, important for G-protein activation. The light-dependent catalytic activity of this GR chimera makes it a potential optogenetic tool for enzymatic activation by light.

Structural insight into proteorhodopsin oligomers

Oligomerization has important functional implications for many membrane proteins. However, obtaining structural insight into oligomeric assemblies is challenging, as they are large and resist crystallization. We focus on proteorhodopsin (PR), a protein with seven transmembrane α-helices that was found to assemble to hexamers in densely packed lipid membrane, or detergent-solubilized environments. Yet, the structural organization and the subunit interface of these PR oligomers were unknown. We used site-directed spin-labeling together with electron spin-resonance lineshape and Overhauser dynamic nuclear polarization analysis to construct a model for the specific orientation of PR subunits within the hexameric complex. We found intersubunit distances to average 16 Å between neighboring 55 residues and that residues 177 are >20 Å apart from each other. These distance constraints show that PR has a defined and radial orientation within a hexamer, with the 55-site of the A-B loop facing the hexamer core and the 177-site of the E-F loop facing the hexamer exterior. Dynamic nuclear polarization measurements of the local solvent dynamics complement the electron spin-resonance-based distance analysis, by resolving whether protein surfaces at positions 55, 58, and 177 are exposed to solvent, or covered by protein-protein or protein-detergent contacts.

Molecular and evolutionary aspects of microbial sensory rhodopsins

Retinal proteins (~rhodopsins) are photochemically reactive membrane-embedded proteins, with seven transmembrane α-helices which bind the chromophore retinal (vitamin A aldehyde). They are widely distributed through all three biological kingdoms, eukarya, bacteria and archaea, indicating the biological significance of the retinal proteins. Light absorption by the retinal proteins triggers a photoisomerization of the chromophore, leading to the biological function, light-energy conversion or light-signal transduction. This article reviews molecular and evolutionary aspects of the light-signal transduction by microbial sensory receptors and their related proteins. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Retinal Proteins - You can teach an old dog new tricks.