Structural Changes in Bacteriorhodopsin Caused by Two-Photon-Induced Photobleaching

Fluorescence spectroscopy of rhodopsins: insights and approaches

Fluorescence spectroscopy has become an established tool at the interface of biology, chemistry and physics because of its exquisite sensitivity and recent technical advancements. However, rhodopsin proteins present the fluorescence spectroscopist with a unique set of challenges and opportunities due to the presence of the light-sensitive retinal chromophore. This review briefly summarizes some approaches that have successfully met these challenges and the novel insights they have yielded about rhodopsin structure and function. We start with a brief overview of fluorescence fundamentals and experimental methodologies, followed by more specific discussions of technical challenges rhodopsin proteins present to fluorescence studies. Finally, we end by discussing some of the unique insights that have been gained specifically about visual rhodopsin and its interactions with affiliate proteins through the use of fluorescence spectroscopy. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Retinal Proteins - You can teach an old dog new tricks.

Two-Photon-Induced Selective Decarboxylation of Aspartic Acids D85 and D212 in Bacteriorhodopsin

The interest in microbial opsins stems from their photophysical properties, which are superior to most organic dyes. Microbial rhodopsins like bacteriorhodopsin (BR) from Halobacterium salinarum have an astonishingly high cross-section for two-photon-absorption (TPA), which is of great interest for technological applications such as data storage. Irradiation of BR with intense laser pulses at 532 nm leads to formation of a bathochromic photoproduct, which is further converted to a photochemical species absorbing in the UV range. As demonstrated earlier, the photochemical conversions are induced by resonant TPA. However, the molecular basis of these conversions remained unresolved. In this work we use mass spectroscopy to demonstrate that TPA of BR leads to selective decarboxylation of two aspartic acids in the vicinity of the retinal chromphore. These photochemical conversions are the basis of permanent two-photon data storage in BR and are of critical importance for application of microbial opsins in optogenetics.