Dipole Reversal in Bacteriorhodopsin and Separation of Dipole Components

Surface chemical functionalization of single walled carbon nanotubes with a bacteriorhodopsin mutant

In this work, single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been chemically functionalized at their walls with a membrane protein, namely the mutated bacteriorhodopsin D96N, integrated in its native archaeal lipid membrane. The modification of the SWNT walls with the mutant has been carried out in different buffer solutions, at pH 5, 7.5 and 9, to investigate the anchoring process, the typical chemical and physical properties of the component materials being dependent on the pH. The SWNTs modified by interactions with bacteriorhodopsin membrane patches have been characterized by UV-vis steady state, Raman and attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and by atomic force and transmission electron microscopy. The investigation shows that the membrane protein patches wrap the carbon walls by tight chemical interactions undergoing a conformational change; such chemical interactions increase the mechanical strength of the SWNTs and promote charge transfers which p-dope the nano-objects. The functionalization, as well as the SWNT doping, is favoured in acid and basic buffer conditions; such buffers make the nanotube walls more reactive, thus catalysing the anchoring of the membrane protein. The direct electron communication among the materials can be exploited for effectively interfacing the transport properties of carbon nanotubes with both molecular recognition capability and photoactivity of the cell membrane for sensing and photoconversion applications upon integration of the achieved hybrid materials in sensors or photovoltaic devices.

Bidirectional mediation of TiO2 nanowires field effect transistor by dipole moment from purple membrane

Bacteriorhodopsin-embedded purple membrane (bR-PM) is one of the most promising biomaterials for various bioelectronics applications. In this work, we demonstrate that a dipole bio-originated from bR-PM can bidirectionally mediate the performance of a bottom-contact TiO(2) nanowire field effect transistor (FET) for performance improvement. When negative gate voltage is applied, both transfer and output characteristics of the TiO(2) nanowire FET are enhanced by the bR-PM modification, resulting in a hole mobility increased by a factor of 2. The effect of the number of the deposited bR-PM layers on the normalized DeltaI(D) of the FET suggests that the additional electric field generated by the dipole moment natively existing in bR-PM actually boosts the performance of the TiO(2) nanowires FET.

Scaling procedures in colloidal electro-optics

In a series of recent papers, we demonstrate the possibility to use the complete electro-optic saturation curves (or arbitrary part of them) to analyse the polarization mechanisms of charged colloidal particles. Scaling of the electro-optic saturation curves by field intensity permits to find the frequency range in which the functional dependence of the effects, hence the orientation mechanism remains unchanged. Similar procedure can be applied to verify the changes of this dependence with variation of particle electric parameters. When different polarization mechanisms are involved the new scale helps their analysis. The aim of the present paper is to summarize the basic applications and advantages of the scaling method in the electro-optic investigation of charged colloids.

Integration of cell membranes and nanotube transistors

We report the integration of a complex biological system and a nanoelectronic device, demonstrating that both components retain their functionality while interacting with each other. As the biological system, we use the cell membrane of Halobacterium salinarum. As the nanoelectronic device, we use a nanotube network transistor, which incorporates many individual nanotubes in such a way that entire patches of cell membrane are contacted by nanotubes. We demonstrate that the biophysical properties of the membrane are preserved, that the nanoelectronic devices still function as transistors, and that the two systems interact. Further, we use the interaction to study the charge distribution in the biological system, finding that the electric dipole of the membrane protein bacteriorhodopsin is located 2/3 of the way from the extracellular to the cytoplasmic side.

Strong bending of purple membranes in the M-state

Structure changes of purple membranes during the photocycle were analysed in solution by measurements of the electric dichroism. The D96N-mutant was used to characterize the M-state at neutral pH. The transition from the resting state to 61% photo-stationary M-state is associated with a strong reduction of the dichroism decay time constant by a factor of approximately 2. Because the change of the time constant is independent of the bacteriorhodopsin concentration, the effect is not attributed to light-induced dissociation but to light-induced bending of purple membranes. After termination of light-activation the dichroism decay of the resting state is restored with a time constant close to that of the M-state decay, which is more than two orders of magnitude slower than proton transfer to the bulk. Thus, bending is not due to asymmetric protonation but to the structure of the M-state. A very similar reduction of decay time constants at a corresponding degree of light-activation was found for wild-type bacteriorhodopsin at pH-values 7.8-9.3, where the lifetime of the M-state is extended. Light-induced bending is also reflected in changes of the stationary dichroism, whereas the overall permanent dipole moment remains almost constant, suggesting compensation of changes in molecular and global contributions. Bead model simulations indicate that disks of approximately 1 microm diameter are bent at a degree of photo-activation of 61% to a radius of approximately 0.25 microm, assuming a cylindrical bending modus. The large light-induced bending effect is consistent with light-induced opening of the protein on the cytoplasmic side of the membrane detected by electron crystallography, which is amplified due to coupling of monomers in the membrane. Bending may function as a mechanical signal.