The primary objective of this project is to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the function of a class of signal transducing light receptors known as sensory rhodopsins. These include sensory rhodopsin I and II (SRI and SRII) from archaebacteria and a rapidly growing list of recently discovered sensory rhodopsins in eubacteria and eukaryotes. Because of their close relationship to bacteriorhodopsin, similarity to rhodopsin G-protein coupled receptors and the availability of high resolution structural models, the sensory rhodopsins provide an excellent model system for studying signal transduction and membrane protein interactions. They are also closely related to chemotactic receptors in eubacteria. Sensory rhodopsins function by transmitting a signal to an associated methyl-accepting transducer (Htr) which mediates a phosphorylation cascade. In preliminary studies, static and time-resolved FTIR difference spectra have been obtained from several sensory rhodopsins and their mutants which reveal the presence of conformational changes including a sequence of protonation changes involving the Schiff base counterion and other unidentified residues. We have demonstrated the feasibility of using FTIR difference spectroscopy to study intact sensory rhodopsin-transducer complexes which are formed by in vivo expression of a fusion protein. This data reveals signals which may arise from the interaction of the receptor and the two core transmembrane helices of the cognate transducer. In the proposed research, an array of infrared-based techniques will be used to examine molecular events occurring upon light excitation of normal and modified forms of sensory rhodopsins and their fusion complexes on the time-scale of microseconds to seconds. This research will utilize time-resolved, polarized, and ATR FTIR-difference spectroscopy as well as FT-Raman spectroscopy. Microscopic FTIR studies on 3D crystals of sensory rhodopsins will provide information on X-ray derived structures of trapped photointermediates which may be altered by lattice constraints. We will also utilize advanced genetic techniques previously applied to bacteriorhodopsin, which allow isotope labels and non-native amino acid to be incorporated at specific sites into sensory rhodopsins and their transducers. We describe in detail a series of experiments utilizing these methods aimed at testing several mechanisms of signal transduction which have been recently proposed. ? ?
