Open Access31 P‐Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Freeze‐Fracture Electron Microscopic Studies on Reconstituted Bacteriorhodopsin Vesicles
Author(s) -
DUCK Piet W. M.,
DAM Karel,
NICOLAY Klaas,
KAPTEIN Robert,
LEUNISSENBIJVELT José
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
european journal of biochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1432-1033
pISSN - 0014-2956
DOI - 10.1111/j.1432-1033.1981.tb06386.x
Subject(s) - bacteriorhodopsin , vesicle , chemistry , electron microscope , phosphatidylcholine , nuclear magnetic resonance , analytical chemistry (journal) , membrane , crystallography , chromatography , biochemistry , optics , phospholipid , physics
Bacteriorhodopsin has been reconstituted into egg‐phosphatidylcholine vesicles by various methods. The resulting preparations have been analyzed on density gradients and by freeze‐fracture electron microscopy. The homogeneity of the vesicle preparations and the light‐induced intravesicular pH changes have been studied by 31 P‐NMR, using glucose 6‐phosphate as pH probe. It is concluded that bacteriorhodopsin is incorporated in the inside‐out mode in vesicles up to about 100 nm. Above this diameter, more or less random insertion takes place.