Foster K W, Saranak J, Derguini F, Zarrilli G R, Johnson R, Okabe M, Nakanishi K
Department of Physics, Syracuse University, New York 13244-1130.
Biochemistry. 1989 Jan 24;28(2):819-24. doi: 10.1021/bi00428a061.
The unicellular eukaryote Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a phototactic alga that swims toward or away from light, using rhodopsin as the photopigment. The activity of retinal analogues was tested in the mutant FN68, which has high phototactic sensitivity only after incubation with retinal or analogues of retinal. Analogues prevented from isomerizing about the 7-ene, 9-ene, 11-ene, 13-ene, or 15-ene (C = N+H) bonds retained full activity. Also, bleaching, protonation of the N, and a stable geometrically altered chromophore are not required for full activity. An attractive hypothesis is that charge redistribution in the excited state of retinal directly triggers the activity of rhodopsin.
单细胞真核生物莱茵衣藻是一种趋光藻类，它利用视紫红质作为光色素向光或背光游动。在突变体FN68中测试了视网膜类似物的活性，该突变体只有在与视网膜或视网膜类似物孵育后才具有高趋光敏感性。阻止7-烯、9-烯、11-烯、13-烯或15-烯（C = N+H）键异构化的类似物保留了全部活性。此外，完全活性并不需要漂白、N的质子化以及稳定的几何结构改变的发色团。一个有吸引力的假设是，视网膜激发态的电荷重新分布直接触发视紫红质的活性。
