Why are blue visual pigments blue? A resonance Raman microprobe study

Unique Retinal Binding Pocket of Primate Blue-Sensitive Visual Pigment

The visual pigments of humans contain 11-cis retinal as the chromophore of light perception, and its photoisomerization to the all-trans form initiates visual excitation in our eyes. It is well-known that three isomeric states of retinal (11-cis, all-trans, and 9-cis) are in photoequilibrium at very low temperatures such as 77 K. Here we report the lack of formation of the 9-cis form in monkey blue (MB) at 77 K, as revealed by light-induced difference Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. This indicates that the chromophore binding pocket of MB does not accommodate the 9-cis form, even though it accommodates the all-trans form by twisting the chromophore. Mutation of the blue-specific tyrosine at position 265 to tryptophan, which is highly conserved in other animal rhodopsins, led to formation of the 9-cis form in MB, suggesting that Y265 is one of the determinants of the unique photochemistry in blue pigments. We also found that 9-cis retinal does not bind to MB opsin, implying that the chromophore binding pocket does not accommodate the 9-cis form at physiological temperature. The unique property of MB is discussed on the basis of the results presented here.

Ligand Binding Mechanisms in Human Cone Visual Pigments

Vertebrate vision starts with light absorption by visual pigments in rod and cone photoreceptor cells of the retina. Rhodopsin, in rod cells, responds to dim light, whereas three types of cone opsins (red, green, and blue) function under bright light and mediate color vision. Cone opsins regenerate with retinal much faster than rhodopsin, but the molecular mechanism of regeneration is still unclear. Recent advances in the area pinpoint transient intermediate opsin conformations, and a possible secondary retinal-binding site, as determinant factors for regeneration. In this Review, we compile previous and recent findings to discuss possible mechanisms of ligand entry in cone opsins, involving a secondary binding site, which may have relevant functional and evolutionary implications.

Human Blue Cone Opsin Regeneration Involves Secondary Retinal Binding with Analog Specificity

Human color vision is mediated by the red, green, and blue cone visual pigments. Cone opsins are G-protein-coupled receptors consisting of an opsin apoprotein covalently linked to the 11-cis-retinal chromophore. All visual pigments share a common evolutionary origin, and red and green cone opsins exhibit a higher homology, whereas blue cone opsin shows more resemblance to the dim light receptor rhodopsin. Here we show that chromophore regeneration in photoactivated blue cone opsin exhibits intermediate transient conformations and a secondary retinoid binding event with slower binding kinetics. We also detected a fine-tuning of the conformational change in the photoactivated blue cone opsin binding site that alters the retinal isomer binding specificity. Furthermore, the molecular models of active and inactive blue cone opsins show specific molecular interactions in the retinal binding site that are not present in other opsins. These findings highlight the differential conformational versatility of human cone opsin pigments in the chromophore regeneration process, particularly compared to rhodopsin, and point to relevant functional, unexpected roles other than spectral tuning for the cone visual pigments.

Beyond spectral tuning: human cone visual pigments adopt different transient conformations for chromophore regeneration

Human red and green visual pigments are seven transmembrane receptors of cone photoreceptor cells of the retina that mediate color vision. These pigments share a very high degree of homology and have been assumed to feature analogous structural and functional properties. We report on a different regeneration mechanism among red and green cone opsins with retinal analogs using UV-Vis/fluorescence spectroscopic analyses, molecular modeling and site-directed mutagenesis. We find that photoactivated green cone opsin adopts a transient conformation which regenerates via an unprotonated Schiff base linkage with its natural chromophore, whereas red cone opsin forms a typical protonated Schiff base. The chromophore regeneration kinetics is consistent with a secondary retinal uptake by the cone pigments. Overall, our findings reveal, for the first time, structural differences in the photoactivated conformation between red and green cone pigments that may be linked to their molecular evolution, and support the proposal of secondary retinal binding to visual pigments, in addition to binding to the canonical primary site, which may serve as a regulatory mechanism of dark adaptation in the phototransduction process.

Cone visual pigments

Cone visual pigments are visual opsins that are present in vertebrate cone photoreceptor cells and act as photoreceptor molecules responsible for photopic vision. Like the rod visual pigment rhodopsin, which is responsible for scotopic vision, cone visual pigments contain the chromophore 11-cis-retinal, which undergoes cis-trans isomerization resulting in the induction of conformational changes of the protein moiety to form a G protein-activating state. There are multiple types of cone visual pigments with different absorption maxima, which are the molecular basis of color discrimination in animals. Cone visual pigments form a phylogenetic sister group with non-visual opsin groups such as pinopsin, VA opsin, parapinopsin and parietopsin groups. Cone visual pigments diverged into four groups with different absorption maxima, and the rhodopsin group diverged from one of the four groups of cone visual pigments. The photochemical behavior of cone visual pigments is similar to that of pinopsin but considerably different from those of other non-visual opsins. G protein activation efficiency of cone visual pigments is also comparable to that of pinopsin but higher than that of the other non-visual opsins. Recent measurements with sufficient time-resolution demonstrated that G protein activation efficiency of cone visual pigments is lower than that of rhodopsin, which is one of the molecular bases for the lower amplification of cones compared to rods. In this review, the uniqueness of cone visual pigments is shown by comparison of their molecular properties with those of non-visual opsins and rhodopsin. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Retinal Proteins - You can teach an old dog new tricks.

Kinetic crystallography by Raman microscopy

Raman spectra, obtained using a Raman microscope, offer a unique and incisive approach to follow interactions and reactions inside a single crystal under soak-in or soak-out conditions. The utility of this approach derives from the finding that the Raman spectra from single macromolecular crystals, under normal (non-resonance) conditions, are extremely stable, with a low "light background," and provide ideal platforms for Raman difference spectroscopy. In turn, this allows the interrogation of sub-molecular changes in very large and complex macromolecular environments. There is often great synergy with X-ray crystallography, with the Raman spectroscopist providing crystallography colleagues with the best soak-in conditions to generate a targeted intermediate for flash freezing and X-ray analysis. On the other hand, X-ray structures at points along a reaction pathway provide invaluable benchmarks for interpreting the Raman data from populations seen by Raman to be changing in real-time. These principles will be illustrated by two reactions: the first involves a complex, branching reaction pathway underlying the inhibition of β-lactamases by clinically important pharmaceutical compounds, where different combinations of drug and enzyme function in different regions of the pathway. The second shows how temporal data can be derived for several events in the initiation step of RNA synthesis-more specifically, when one GTP molecule is joined to one ATP molecule to form a G∙A dimer in the active site of a 115,000 Dalton crystalline RNA polymerase. Finally, we will summarize the extension of Raman microscopy to nucleic acid crystals and the information that has been obtained for RNA-based enzymes. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Protein Structure and Function in the Crystalline State.

RAMAN CRYSTALLOGRAPHY AND OTHER BIOCHEMICAL APPLICATIONS OF RAMAN MICROSCOPY

Recent studies using a Raman microscope have shown that single protein crystals provide an ideal platform to undertake Raman difference spectroscopic analyses under nonresonance conditions. This approach, termed Raman crystallography, provides a means of characterizing chemical events within the crystal such as ligand binding and enzyme reactions. In many cases Raman crystallography goes hand in hand with X-ray crystallographic studies because the Raman results can inform the X-ray crystallographer about the status of chemical events in the crystal prior to flash freezing and X-ray analysis. In turn, the combined data from the Raman and X-ray analyses are highly synergistic and offer novel perspectives on structure and dynamics in enzyme active sites. In a related area, protein misfolding, Raman microscopy can provide detailed insights into the chemistry of the amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease and into the intermediates on the alpha-synuclein protein misfolding pathway implicated in Parkinson's disease.

Vertebrate photoreceptors

The basis of the duplex theory of vision is examined in view of the dazzling array of data on visual pigment sequences and the pigments they form, on the microspectrophotometry measurements of single photoreceptor cells, on the kinds of photoreceptor cascade enzymes, and on the electrophysiological properties of photoreceptors. The implications of the existence of five distinct visual pigment families are explored, especially with regard to what pigments are in what types of photoreceptors, if there are different phototransduction enzymes associated with different types of photoreceptors, and if there are electrophysiological differences between different types of cones.

Colour tuning mechanisms of visual pigments

Spectral tuning by visual pigments involves modulation of physical properties of the 11-cis-retinylidene protonated Schiff base (PSB) chromophore by amino acid side chains in and around the chromophore-binding pocket. Specific molecular contacts between the chromophore and the amino acid side chains of the opsin chromophore-binding pocket have been determined recently using an interdisciplinary approach consisting of site-directed mutagenesis, optical and vibrational spectroscopy, and molecular graphics modelling. These studies provide insight into the mechanism of spectral tuning among visual pigments. In blue pigments a majority of the opsin shift is caused by polar amino acid side chains arrayed about the PSB to increase the energy gap between the ground (S0) and excited states (S1). In addition, a specific tyrosine near the chromophore ring causes a decrease in solvent polarizability. Other amino acid residues alter the binding pocket structure to strengthen electrostatic interaction between the PSB and its counterion and/or solvent dipoles. In the green and red pigments, the work of Kochendoerfer et al (1997; Biochemistry 26:6577-6587) demonstrates that local structural perturbations at the PSB or elsewhere are not responsible for spectral tuning. Instead, the green-to-red opsin shift is best explained by dipolar side chains near the chromophore ring that lower the transition energy that occurs upon electronic excitation by affecting the change in electric dipole moment. In summary, the absorption maximum of a visual pigment is primarily regulated by the interaction of the chromophore charge distribution with dipolar residues in its opsin chromophore-binding pocket. The work presented in this paper is reported in greater detail in Lin et al.

Spectral tuning in salamander visual pigments studied with dihydroretinal chromophores

In visual pigments, opsin proteins regulate the spectral absorption of a retinal chromophore by mechanisms that change the energy level of the excited electronic state relative to the ground state. We have studied these mechanisms by using photocurrent recording to measure the spectral sensitivities of individual red rods and red (long-wavelength-sensitive) and blue (short-wavelength-sensitive) cones of salamander before and after replacing the native 3-dehydro 11-cis retinal chromophore with retinal analogs: 11-cis retinal, 3-dehydro 9-cis retinal, 9-cis retinal, and 5,6-dihydro 9-cis retinal. The protonated Schiff's bases of analogs with unsaturated bonds in the ring had broader spectra than the same chromophores bound to opsins. Saturation of the bonds in the ring reduced the spectral bandwidths of the protonated Schiff's bases and the opsin-bound chromophores and made them similar to each other. This indicates that torsion of the ring produces spectral broadening and that torsion is limited by opsin. Saturating the 5,6 double bond in retinal reduced the perturbation of the chromophore by opsin in red and in blue cones but not in red rods. Thus an interaction between opsin and the chromophoric ring shifts the spectral maxima of the red and blue cone pigments, but not that of the red rod pigment.

How color visual pigments are tuned

The absorption maximum of the retinal chromophore in color visual pigments is tuned by interactions with the protein (opsin) to which it is bound. Recent advances in the expression of rhodopsin-like transmembrane receptors and in spectroscopic techniques have allowed us to measure resonance Raman vibrational spectra of the retinal chromophore in recombinant visual pigments to examine the molecular basis of this spectral tuning. The dominant physical mechanism responsible for the opsin shift in color vision is the interaction of dipolar amino acid residues with the ground- and excited-state charge distributions of the chromophore.

Mechanisms of spectral tuning in blue cone visual pigments. Visible and raman spectroscopy of blue-shifted rhodopsin mutants

Spectral tuning by visual pigments involves the modulation of the physical properties of the chromophore (11-cis-retinal) by amino acid side chains that compose the chromophore-binding pocket. We identified 12 amino acid residues in the human blue cone pigment that might induce the required green-to-blue opsin shift. The simultaneous substitution of nine of these sites in rhodopsin (M86L, G90S, A117G, E122L, A124T, W265Y, A292S, A295S, and A299C) shifted the absorption maximum from 500 to 438 nm, accounting for 2,830 cm-1, or 80%, of the opsin shift between rhodopsin and the blue cone pigment. Raman spectroscopy of mutant pigments shows that the dielectric character and architecture of the chromophore-binding pocket are specifically altered. An increase in the number of dipolar side chains near the protonated Schiff base of retinal increases the ground-excited state energy gap via long range dipole-dipole Coulomb interaction. In addition, the W265Y substitution causes a decrease in solvent polarizability near the chromophore ring structure. Finally, two substitutions on transmembrane helix 3 (A117G and E122L) act in combination with the other substitutions to alter the binding-pocket structure, resulting in stronger interaction of the protonated Schiff base group with the surrounding dipolar groups and the counterion. Taken together, these results identify the amino acid side chains and the underlying physical mechanisms responsible for a majority of the opsin shift in blue visual pigments.

Cloning and expression of a Xenopus short wavelength cone pigment

The short wavelength visual pigment from Xenopus responsible for vision in the blue/violet portion of the spectrum was characterized by sequence spectroscopic analysis. The amino acid sequence was deduced by sequencing clones isolated by reverse transcription PCR, from retinal cDNA and genomic libraries. The gene contains 5 exons spanning 8.4 kb of genomic DNA and produces an mRNA of 2.4 kb in length. The deduced amino acid sequence predicts a protein of 347 amino acids with 76-78% identity to other short wavelength opsins. The mRNA encoding the Xenopus violet pigment was detected using in situ hybridization in cones, comprising a few percent of the total photoreceptors in the adult retina. The Xenopus violet opsin cDNA, modified to contain an epitope from the carboxyl terminus of bovine rhodopsin, was expressed in COS1 cells by transient transfection and analysed by UV-visible absorption spectroscopy. The protein expressed in COS1 cells migrated at 34 kD and was glycosylated at a single site in the amino terminus, exhibiting a diffuse pattern on SDS PAGE similar to bovine rhodopsin expressed in COS1 cells. Following incubation with 11-cis retinal, a light-sensitive pigment was formed with the lambdamax=425+/-2 nm. A Schiff base linkage between retinal and the violet opsin was demonstrated by acid denaturation. Xenopus violet opsin was sensitive to hydroxylamine in the dark, reacting with a half-time of 5 min at room temperature. This is the first group S pigment for amphibians. The pigment was expressed and purified from COS1 cells in a form that has permitted for the first time determination of the extinction coefficient, reactivity to hydroxylamine and presence of a Schiff base.

Anion sensitivity and spectral tuning of cone visual pigments in situ

We tested the effect of anions on the absorbance spectrum of native visual pigments as measured by microspectrophotometry in individual cone outer segments of four species of fish and one species of amphibian. In all species tested, the long-wavelength-absorbing cone pigments were anion sensitive, and their lambda max could be tuned over a range of 55 nm depending on the identity of the anion present. Cl- and Br- were the only anions that produced native pigment spectra by red shifting lambda max from its value under anion-free conditions. Lyotropic anions such as NO3-, SCN-, BF4-, and ClO4- caused substantial and graded blue shifts of lambda max. The apparent Kd of binding sites on the pigment for Cl- and for ClO4- was approximately 2 mM. Taken together with previous findings on three visual pigments from the reptilian, avian, and amphibian classes, our results support the hypothesis that all long-wavelength-absorbing vertebrate visual pigments are spectrally tuned in part through the binding of a chloride ion. We propose that the site of anion tuning is near the protonated Schiff base of the chromophore, whose counterion may be complex and include Cl- as an exchangeable anion. This counterion configuration may resemble the one present in the light-driven Cl- pump halorhodopsin.

The role of the retinylidene Schiff base counterion in rhodopsin in determining wavelength absorbance and Schiff base pKa

Glu-113 serves as the retinylidene Schiff base counterion in bovine rhodopsin. Purified mutant rhodopsin pigments were prepared in which Glu-113 was replaced individually by Gln (E113Q), Asp (E113D), Asn (E113N), or Ala (E113A). E113Q, E113N, and E113A existed as pH-dependent equilibrium mixtures of unprotonated and protonated Schiff base (PSB) forms. The Schiff base pKa values determined by spectrophotometric titration were 6.00 (E113Q), 6.71 (E113N), and 5.70 (E113A). Thus, mutation of Glu-113 markedly reduced the Schiff base pKa. The addition of NaCl promoted the formation of a PSB in E113Q and E113A. An exogenously supplied solute anion replaced Glu-113 to compensate for the positive charge of the PSB in these mutants. The lambda max values of the PSB forms of the mutants in NaCl were 496 nm (E113Q), 506 nm (E113A), 510 nm (E113D), and 520 nm (E113N). To evaluate the effect of different types of solute anions on lambda max values, mutants were prepared in sodium salts of halides, perchlorate, and a series of carboxylic acids of various sizes and acidity. The lambda max values of E113Q and E113A depended on the solute anion present and ranged from 488 nm to 522 nm for E113Q and from 486 nm to 528 nm for E113A. The solute anion affected the lambda max values of E113N and E113D to lesser degrees. The reactivities of the mutants to hydroxylamine were also studied. Whereas rhodopsin was stable to hydroxylamine in the dark, E113N reacted slowly and E113Q reacted rapidly under these conditions, indicating structural differences in the Schiff base environments. The lambda max values and solute anion dependencies of the Glu-113 mutants indicate that interactions between Schiff base and its counterion play a significant role in determining the lambda max of rhodopsin.

Structure of the retinal chromophore in 7,9-dicis-rhodopsin

Bovine rhodopsin was bleached and regenerated with 7,9-dicis-retinal to form 7,9-dicis-rhodopsin, which was purified on a concanavalin A affinity column. The absorption maximum of the 7,9-dicis pigment is 453 nm, giving an opsin shift of 1600 cm-1 compared to 2500 cm-1 for 11-cis-rhodopsin and 2400 cm-1 for 9-cis-rhodopsin. Rapid-flow resonance Raman spectra have been obtained of 7,9-dicis-rhodopsin in H2O and D2O at room temperature. The shift of the 1654-cm-1 C = N stretch to 1627 cm-1 in D2O demonstrates that the Schiff base nitrogen is protonated. The absence of any shift in the 1201-cm-1 mode, which is assigned as the C14-C15 stretch, or of any other C-C stretching modes in D2O indicates that the Schiff base C = N configuration is trans (anti). Assuming that the cyclohexenyl ring binds with the same orientation in 7,9-dicis-, 9-cis-, and 11-cis-rhodopsins, the presence of two cis bonds requires that the N-H bond of the 7,9-dicis chromophore points in the opposite direction from that in the 9-cis or 11-cis pigment. However, the Schiff base C = NH+ stretching frequency and its D2O shift in 7,9-dicis-rhodopsin are very similar to those in 11-cis- and 9-cis-rhodopsin, indicating that the Schiff base electrostatic/hydrogen-bonding environments are effectively the same. The C = N trans (anti) Schiff base geometry of 7,9-dicis-rhodopsin and the insensitivity of its Schiff base vibrational properties to orientation are rationalized by examining the binding site specificity with molecular modeling.

Color regulation in the archaebacterial phototaxis receptor phoborhodopsin (sensory rhodopsin II)

Phoborhodopsin, a repellent phototaxis receptor in Halobacterium halobium, exhibits vibrational fine structure, a feature that has not been identified for any other rhodopsin pigment at physiological temperatures. This conclusion follows form analysis of the absorption properties of the pigment in H. halobium membranes containing native retinal and an array of retinal analogues. The absorption spectrum of the native pigment has a maximum at 487 nm with a pronounced shoulder at 460 nm; however, the bandwidth is that expected for a single retinylidene species. Gaussian band-shape simulation with a spacing corresponding to the vibrational frequencies of polyene stretching modes reproduces the structured absorption spectra of native pigment as well as of analogue phoborhodopsin. Absorption shifts produced by a series of dihydroretinal and other retinal analogues strongly indicate that the dominant factor regulating the color of the pigment is planarization of the retinal ring with respect to the polyene chain.

Solid-state NMR studies of the mechanism of the opsin shift in the visual pigment rhodopsin

Solid-state 13C NMR spectra have been obtained of bovine rhodopsin and isorhodopsin regenerated with retinal selectively 13C labeled along the polyene chain. In rhodopsin, the chemical shifts for 13C-5, 13C-6, 13C-7, 13C-14, and 13C-15 correspond closely to the chemical shifts observed in the 11-cis protonated Schiff base (PSB) model compound. Differences in chemical shift relative to the 11-cis PSB chloride salt are observed for positions 8 through 13, with the largest deshielding (6.2 ppm) localized at position 13. The localized deshielding at C-13 supports previous models of the opsin shift in rhodopsin that place a protein perturbation in the vicinity of position 13. Spectra obtained of isorhodopsin regenerated with 13C-labeled 9-cis-retinals reveal large perturbations at 13C-7 and 13C-13. The similar deshielding of the 13C-13 resonance in both pigments supports the presence of a protein perturbation near position 13. However, the chemical shifts at positions 7 and 12 in isorhodopsin are not analogous to those observed in rhodopsin and suggest that the binding site interactions near these positions are different for the two pigments. The implications of these results for the mechanism of the opsin shift in these proteins are discussed.

Effects of modified chromophores on the spectral sensitivity of salamander, squirrel and macaque cones

1. Chemically modified retinal chromophores were used to investigate the mechanisms that produce the characteristic spectral absorptions of cone pigments. Spectral sensitivities of single cones from the salamander, squirrel and macaque retina were determined by electrical recording. The chromophore was then replaced by bleaching the pigment and regenerating it with a retinal analogue. 2. Exposing a bleached cone to 9-cis-retinal for a brief period (less than 20 min) caused its flash sensitivity to recover to about 0.2 of the pre-bleach value. Similar exposure to a locked 6-s-cis, 9-cis analogue gave a recovery to about 0.03 of the pre-bleach value. 3. Unlike the flash sensitivity, the saturating photocurrent amplitude often recovered completely after bleaching and regenerating the pigment. 4. When the 3-dehydroretinal chromophore in the salamander long-wavelength-sensitive (red) cone was replaced with 11-cis-retinal, shortening the conjugated chain in the chromophore, the spectral sensitivity underwent a blue shift of 67 nm. 5. Pigments containing the planar-locked 6-s-cis.9-cis-retinal analogue absorbed at substantially longer wavelength than those containing unmodified 9-cis-retinal. The opsin shift, a measure of the protein's ability to modify the chromophore's absorption was larger for the locked analogue than for 9-cis-retinal. This suggests that the native chromophore assumes a twisted 6-s-cis conformation in these pigments. 6. The spectral sensitivities of red and green macaque cones containing 9-cis-retinal or planar-locked 6-s-cis.9-cis-retinal retained the 30 nm separation characteristic of the native pigments. This suggests that the different absorptions of of the 6-7 carbon bond in the retinal chromophore.

Asp83, Glu113 and Glu134 are not specifically involved in Schiff base protonation or wavelength regulation in bovine rhodopsin

Site-specific mutagenesis was employed to investigate the proposed contribution of proton-donating residues (Glu, Asp) in the membrane domains of bovine rhodopsin to protonation of the Schiff base-linking protein and chromophore or to wavelength modulation of this visual pigment. Three point-mutations were introduced to replace the highly conserved residues Asp83 by Asn (D83N), Glu113 by Gln (E113 Q) or Glu134 by Asp (E134D), respectively. All 3 substitutions had only marginal effects on the spectral properties of the final pigment (less than or equal to 3 nm blue-shift relative to native rhodopsin). Hence, none of these residues by itself is specifically involved in Schiff base protonation or wavelength modulation of bovine rhodopsin.

Effect of carboxylic acid side chains on the absorption maximum of visual pigments

The proposal that the absorption maximum of the visual pigments is governed by interaction of the 11-cis-retinal chromophore with charged carboxylic acid side chains in the membrane-embedded regions of the proteins has been tested by mutating five Asp and Glu residues thought to be buried in rhodopsin. Changing Glu113 to Gln causes a dramatic shift in the absorption maximum from 500 nanometers to 380 nanometers, a decrease in the pKa (acidity constant) of the protonated Schiff base of the chromophore to about 6, and a greatly increased reactivity with hydroxylamine. Thus Glu113 appears to be the counterion to the protonated Schiff base. Wavelength modulation in visual pigments apparently is not governed by electrostatic interaction with carboxylate residues, other than the counterion.

Glutamic acid-113 serves as the retinylidene Schiff base counterion in bovine rhodopsin

The characteristic wavelength at which a visual pigment absorbs light is regulated by interactions between protein (opsin) and retinylidene Schiff base chromophore. By using site-directed mutagenesis, charged amino acids in bovine rhodopsin transmembrane helix C were systematically replaced. Substitution of glutamic acid-134 or arginine-135 did not affect spectral properties. However, substitution of glutamic acid-122 by glutamine or by aspartic acid formed pigments that were blue-shifted in light absorption (lambda max = 480 nm and 475 nm, respectively). While the substitution of glutamic acid-113 by aspartic acid gave a slightly red-shifted pigment (lambda max = 505 nm), replacement by glutamine formed a pigment that was strikingly blue-shifted in light absorption (lambda max = 380 nm). The 380-nm species existed in a pH-dependent equilibrium with a 490-nm species such that at acidic pH all of the pigment was converted to lambda max = 490 nm. We conclude that glutamic acid-113 serves as the retinylidene Schiff base counterion in rhodopsin. We believe that this opsin-chromophore interaction is an example of a general mechanism of color regulation in the visual pigments.