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Progress toward an explicit mechanistic model for the light‐driven pump, bacteriorhodopsin
Author(s) -
Lanyi Janos K
Publication year - 1999
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/s0014-5793(99)01685-3
Subject(s) - bacteriorhodopsin , steric effects , proton transport , proton , chemistry , biophysics , membrane , chemical physics , physics , stereochemistry , biology , biochemistry , nuclear physics
Recent crystallographic information about the structure of bacteriorhodopsin and some of its photointermediates, together with a large amount of spectroscopic and mutational data, suggest a mechanistic model for how this protein couples light energy to the translocation of protons across the membrane. Now nearing completion, this detailed molecular model will describe the nature of the steric and electrostatic conflicts at the photoisomerized retinal, as well as the means by which it induces proton transfers in the two half‐channels leading to the two membrane surfaces, thereby causing unidirectional, uphill transport.