The pKa of the protonated Schiff bases of gecko cone and octopus visual pigments

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.

The role of the non-covalent β-ionone-ring binding site in rhodopsin: historical and physiological perspective

Bleached rhodopsin regenerates by way of the Schiff base formation between the 11-cis retinal and opsin. Recovery of human vision from light adapted states follows biphasic kinetics and each adaptive phase is assigned to two distinct classes of visual pigments in cones and rods, respectively, suggesting that the speed of Schiff base formation differs between iodopsin and rhodopsin. Matsumoto and Yoshizawa predicted the existence of a β-ionone ring-binding site in rhodopsin, which has been proven by structural studies. They postulated that rhodopsin regeneration starts with a non-covalent binding of the β-ionone ring moiety of 11-cis-retinal, followed by the Schiff base formation. Recent physiological investigation revealed that non-covalent occupation of the β-ionone ring binding site transiently activates the visual transduction cascade in the dark. In order to understand the role of non-covalent binding of 11-cis-retinal to opsin during regeneration, we studied the kinetics of rhodopsin regeneration from opsin and 11-cis-retinal and found that the Schiff base formation is accelerated ∼10(7) times compared to that between retinal and free amine. According to Cordes and Jencks, Schiff base formation in solution exhibits a bell-shaped pH dependence. However, we discovered that the rhodopsin formation is independent of pH over a wide pH range, suggesting that aqueous solvents do not have access to the Schiff base milieu during its formation. According to Hecht et al. the regeneration of iodopsin must be significantly faster than that of rhodopsin. Does this suggest that the Schiff base formation in iodopsin is favored due to its structural architecture? The iodopsin structure once solved would answer such a question as how molecular fine-tuning of retinal proteins realizes their dark adaptive functions. In contrast, bacteriorhodopsin does not require occupancy of a distinct β-ionone ring-binding site, enabling an aldehyde without the cyclohexene ring to form a pigment. Studies of regeneration reaction of other retinal proteins, which are scarcely available, would clarify the molecular structure-phenotype relationships and their physiological roles.

Dual functionalized amino poly(glycerol methacrylate) with guanidine and Schiff-base linked imidazole for enhanced gene transfection and minimized cytotoxicity

Guanidine and Schiff-base linked imidazole dual functionalized poly(glycerol methacrylate) (IGEP) leads to minimized cytotoxicity and better transfection efficacy than PEI_25K.

Reversible PEGylation and Schiff-base linked imidazole modification of polylysine for high-performance gene delivery

In the designed polylysine based catiomer the reversible PEGylation was introduced forin vivocirculation and to augment the cellular internalization, while the Schiff-base linked imidazole to accelerate the endosomal escape and facilitate intracellular DNA unpacking and release.

Endosomal pH responsive polymers for efficient cancer targeted gene therapy

Treatment of human diseases at gene level is always limited by effective gene delivery vectors. In this study, we designed and developed an endosomal pH sensitive targeted gene delivery system, folic acid functionalized Schiff-base linked imidazole chitosan (FA-SLICS), for cancer therapy. The FA-SLICS is able to self-assemble plasmid DNA (pDNA) into nano-scaled polyplexes under a neutral condition and to release the loaded pDNA in the endosomal microenvironment due to the presence of pH sensitive Schiff-base moieties along chitosan backbones. The FA-SLICS has negligible cytotoxicity to normal cells (CHO), but displays slight toxicity to cancer cells (HeLa and HepG2). In addition, FA-SLICS can selectively and efficiently transfect FR (folate receptor) positive cells (HeLa cells) as a gene carrier. Therefore, the FA-SLICS should be a promising delivery vector in cancer gene therapy based on its cell targeting capability and intracellular microenvironment controlled delivery mechanism.

Probing human red cone opsin activity with retinal analogues

Retinal analogues have been used to probe the chromophore binding pocket and function of the rod visual pigment rhodopsin. Despite the high homology between rod and cone visual pigment proteins, conclusions drawn from rhodopsin studies should not necessarily be extrapolated to cone visual pigment proteins. In this study, the effects of full-length and truncated retinal analogues on the human red cone opsin's ability to activate transducin, the G protein in visual transduction, were assessed. The result with beta-ionone (6) confirms that a covalent bond is not necessary to deactivate the red cone opsin. In addition, several small compounds were found able to deactivate this opsin. However, as the polyene chain is extended in a trans configuration beyond the 9-carbon position, the analogues became agonists up to all-trans-retinal (3). The 22-carbon analogue (2) appeared to be neither an agonist nor an inverse agonist. Although the all-trans-C17 (5) analogue was an agonist, the 9-cis-C17 (11) compound was an inverse agonist, a result that differs from that with rhodopsin. These results suggest that the red cone opsin has a more open structure in the chromophore binding region than rhodopsin and its activation or deactivation as a G-protein receptor may be less selective than rhodopsin.

Engineering a rhodopsin protein mimic

Due to the difficulties in handling and manipulating membrane-bound proteins, such as rhodopsin, and the lack of crystallographic information on the cone opsins, we have opted to engineer a protein mimic of the transmembrane G-protein coupled receptor. Human cellular retinoic acid binding protein (CRABPII), a well studied and characterized protein, has been reengineered into a protein that now will bind retinal as a protonated Schiff base with high binding affinity (Kd = 2 nM) mimicking that of rhodopsin.

Protein design: reengineering cellular retinoic acid binding protein II into a rhodopsin protein mimic

Rational redesign of the binding pocket of Cellular Retinoic Acid Binding Protein II (CRABPII) has provided a mutant that can bind retinal as a protonated Schiff base, mimicking the binding observed in rhodopsin. The reengineering was accomplished through a series of choreographed manipulations to ultimately orient the reactive species (the epsilon-amino group of Lys132 and the carbonyl of retinal) in the proper geometry for imine formation. The guiding principle was to achieve the appropriate Bürgi-Dunitz trajectory for the reaction to ensue. Through crystallographic analysis of protein mutants incapable of forming the requisite Schiff base, a highly ordered water molecule was identified as a key culprit in orienting retinal in a nonconstructive manner. Removal of the ordered water, along with placing reinforcing mutations to favor the desired orientation of retinal, led to a triple mutant CRABPII protein capable of nanomolar binding of retinal as a protonated Schiff base. The high-resolution crystal structure of all-trans-retinal bound to the CRABPII triple mutant (1.2 A resolution) unequivocally illustrates the imine formed between retinal and the protein.

The vertebrate phototransduction cascade: amplification and termination mechanisms

The biochemical cascade which transduces light into a neuronal signal in retinal photoreceptors is a heterotrimeric GTP-binding protein (G protein) signaling pathway called phototransduction. Works from psychophysicists, electrophysiologists, biochemists, and geneticists over several decades have come together to shape our understanding of how photon absorption leads to photoreceptor membrane hyperpolarization. The insights of phototransduction provide the foundation for a mechanistic account of signaling from many other G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) found throughout nature. The application of reverse genetic techniques has strengthened many historic findings and helped to describe this pathway at greater molecular details. However, many important questions remain to be answered.

Molecular mechanism of spontaneous pigment activation in retinal cones

Spontaneous current and voltage fluctuations (dark noise) in the photoreceptor cells of the retina limit the ability of the visual system to detect dim light. We recorded the dark current noise of individual salamander L cones. Previous work showed that the dark noise in these cells arises from thermal activation of the visual pigment. From the temperature dependence of the rate of occurrence of elementary noise events, we found an Arrhenius activation energy E(a) of 25 +/- 7 kcal/mol (mean +/- SD). This E(a) is similar to that reported for the thermal isomerization of 11-cis retinal in solution, suggesting that the cone pigment noise results from isomerization of the retinal chromophore. E(a) for the cone noise is similar to that previously reported for the "photon-like" noise of rods, but the preexponential factor is five orders of magnitude higher. To test the hypothesis that thermal isomerization can only occur in molecules whose Schiff base linkage is unprotonated, we changed the pH of the solution bathing the cone outer segment. This had little effect on the rate of occurrence of elementary noise events. The rate was also unchanged when the cone was exposed to Ringer solution made up from heavy water, whose solvent isotope effect should reduce the probability, that the Schiff base nitrogen is naked.

Simple and efficient preparation of [10,20-13C2]- and [10-CH3,13-13C2]-10-methylretinal: introduction of substituents at the 2-position of 2,3-unsaturated nitriles

In this paper, we present the synthesis of [10,20-13C2]-10-methylretinal and [10-CH3,13-13C2]-10-methylretinal, two doubly 13C-labeled chemically modified retinals that have been recently used to study the structural and functional details behind the photocascade of bovine rhodopsin (Verdegem et al. Biochemistry 1999, 38, 11316; de Lange et al. Biochemistry 1998, 37, 1411). To obtain both doubly 13C-labeled compounds, we developed a novel synthetic method to directly and regiospecifically introduce a methyl substituent on the 2-position of 3-methyl-5-(2',6',6'-trimethyl-1'-cyclohexen-1'-yl)-2,4-pentadienenitrile. Encouraged by these results, we investigated the scope of this novel reaction by developing a general method for the introduction of a variety of substituents to the 2-position of 3-methyl-2,3-unsaturated nitriles, paving the way for simple and efficient synthesis of a wide variety of 10-, 14-, and 10,14-substituted chemically modified retinals, and other biologically important compounds.

pKa of the protonated Schiff base of visual pigments

The pKa of bovine rhodopsin is greater than 15; that of the long-wave-length-sensitive gecko P521 pigment ranges from 8.4 to 10.5 depending on chloride concentration; and that of octopus, an invertebrate, is 10.5. These pKa values are much higher than are needed just to maintain the Schiff base in its protonated state in the photoreceptor cell. The high pKa of the Schiff base may be at least partially related to a low pKa of its counterion, which would lower the frequency of thermal isomerization of the chromophore and thus lower the dark noise in the photoreceptor cell. After light absorption, the high pKa of the protonated Schiff base of a vertebrate visual pigment must get lowered enough to allow it to deprotonate, a required step in vertebrate visual excitation. This deprotonation step is not required in invertebrate visual excitation.

Chloride binding regulates the Schiff base pK in gecko P521 cone-type visual pigment

The binding of chloride is known to shift the absorption spectrum of most long-wavelength-absorbing cone-type visual pigments roughly 30 nm to the red. We determined that the chloride binding constant for this color shift in the gecko P521 visual pigment is 0.4 mM at pH 6.0. We found an additional effect of chloride on the P521 pigment: the apparent pKa of the Schiff base in P521 is greatly increased as the chloride concentration is increased. The apparent Schiff base pKa shifts from 8.4 for the chloride-free form to >10.4 for the chloride-bound form. We show that this shift is due to chloride binding to the pigment, not to the screening of the membrane surface charges by chloride ions. We also found that at high pH, the absorption maximum of the chloride-free pigment shifts from 495 to 475 nm. We suggest that the chloride-dependent shift of the apparent Schiff base pKa is due to the deprotonation of a residue in the chloride binding site with a pKa of ca. 8.5, roughly that of the Schiff base in the absence of chloride. The deprotonation of this site results in the formation of the 475 nm pigment and a 100-fold decrease in the pigment's ability to bind chloride. Increasing the concentration of chloride results in the stabilization of the protonated state of this residue in the chloride binding site and thus increased chloride binding with an accompanying increase in the Schiff base pK.

Resonance Raman examination of the wavelength regulation mechanism in human visual pigments

Resonance Raman spectra of recombinant human green and red cone pigments have been obtained to examine the molecular mechanism of color recognition by visual pigments. Spectra were acquired using a 77 K resonance Raman microprobe or preresonance Raman spectroscopy. The vibrational bands were assigned by comparison to the spectra of bovine rhodopsin and model compounds. The C=NH stretching frequencies of rhodopsin, the green cone pigment, and the red cone pigment in H2O (D2O) are found at 1656 (1623), 1640 (1618), and 1644 cm(-1), respectively. Together with previous resonance Raman studies on iodopsin [Lin, S. W., Imamoto, Y., Fukada, Y., Shichida, Y., Yoshizawa, T., & Mathies, R. A. (1994) Biochemistry 33, 2151-2160], these values suggest that red and green pigments have very similar Schiff base environments, while the Schiff base group in rhodopsin is more strongly hydrogen-bonded to its protein environment. The absence of significant frequency and intensity differences of modes in the fingerprint and the hydrogen out-of-plane wagging regions for all these pigments does not support the hypothesis that local chromophore interactions with charged protein residues and/or chromophore planarization are crucial for the absorption differences among these pigments. However, our data are consistent with the idea that the Schiff base group in blue visual pigments is stabilized by protein and water dipoles and that the removal of this dipolar field shifts the absorption maximum from blue to green. A further red shift of the lambda(max) from the green to the red pigment is successfully modeled by the addition of hydroxyl-bearing amino acids (Ser164, Tyr261, and Thr269) close to the ionone ring that lower the transition energy by interacting with the change of dipole moment of the chromophore upon excitation. The increased hydrogen bonding of the protonated Schiff base group in rhodopsin is predicted to account for the 30 nm blue shift of its absorption maximum compared to that of the green pigment.

Light-induced protein conformational changes in the photolysis of octopus rhodopsin

Light-induced protein conformational changes in the photolysis of octopus rhodopsin were measured with a highly sensitive time-resolved transient UV absorption spectrophotometer with nanosecond time resolution. A negative band around 280 nm in the lumirhodopsin minus rhodopsin spectra suggests that alteration of the environment of some of the tryptophan residues has taken place before the formation of lumirhodopsin. A small recovery of the absorbance at 280 nm was observed in the transformation of lumirhodopsin to mesorhodopsin. Kinetic parameters suggest that major conformational changes have taken place in the transformation of mesorhodopsin to acid metarhodopsin. In this transformation, drastic changes of amplitude and a shift of a difference absorption band around 280 nm take place, which suggest that some of the tryptophan residues of rhodopsin become exposed to a hydrophilic environment.

Ultraviolet resonance Raman evidence for the absence of tyrosinate in octopus rhodopsin and the participation of Trp residues in the transition to acid metarhodopsin

The ultraviolet (244 nm) resonance Raman spectra of octopus rhodopsin and its photoproduct, acid metarhodopsin, do not give any evidence for a tyrosinate. This finding excludes the possibility that Tyr-112 serves as the counter anion to the protonated Schiff base as does Glu-113 in bovine rhodopsin. Upon photoconversion from rhodopsin to acid metarhodopsin, Trp and Tyr Raman bands decrease in intensity and concomitantly a Trp band shifts in frequency. The changes of Trp Raman bands are ascribed to changes in hydrophobic interactions and conformation, suggesting a possible role of Trp in the photoconversion process of octopus rhodopsin.