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Solubilization steps of dark‐adapted purple membrane by Triton X‐100 A spectroscopic study
Author(s) -
Meyer Olivier,
Ollivon Michel,
Paternostre Marie-Thérèse
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(92)80679-b
Subject(s) - bacteriorhodopsin , solubilization , absorbance , chemistry , triton x 100 , halobacteriaceae , micelle , membrane , spectroscopy , chromatography , turbidity , ultraviolet visible spectroscopy , halobacterium , halobacterium salinarum , analytical chemistry (journal) , pulmonary surfactant , biochemistry , aqueous solution , organic chemistry , physics , biology , ecology , quantum mechanics
Ultraviolet‐visible spectroscopy has been used to follow the solubilization of the dark‐adapted purple membrane of Halobacterium halobium by Triton X‐100. Turbidity of purple membrane fragments and absorbance of bacteriorhodopsin variations during continuous addition of detergent give solubilization profiles exhibiting several break points corresponding to different equilibrium stages of the solubilization process. The present method allows the determination of the detergent to protein + lipid ratio in mixed aggregates at the corresponding break points. It was concluded that, when performed systematically, this technique is a very convenient and powerful tool for the quantitative study of biomembrane‐to‐micelle transition.