Dresden 2017 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 56: Protein Structure and Dynamics

BP 56.6: Talk

Thursday, March 23, 2017, 16:30–16:45, SCH A251

Color tuning of visual rhodopsins: a quantitative explanation by electrostatic calculations — •Florimond Collette, Frank Müh, and Thomas Renger — Institut für Theoretische Physik, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenberger Strasse 69, 4040 Linz, Austria

Rhodopsins are biological pigment-protein complexes found in photoreceptor cells of the retina. Comparing the results of two quantum chemical/electrostatic calculation methods, that have been applied successfully to reveal the functional states of BLUF photoreceptors [1] and photosystem II antenna protein CP29 [2], we have estimated absorption shifts of the retinal chromophore for a series of site-directed mutants. Our results are in excellent agreement with recent experimental studies [3] and strongly suggest that the spectral sensitivity in animal rhodopsins is dominated by electrostatic tuning.
[1] F. Collette et al., J. Phys. Chem. B 118, 11109 (2014).
[2] F. Müh et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 16, 11848 (2014).
[3] W. Wang et al., Science 338, 1340 (2012).