Abstract
The molecular changes during the photoreaction of halorhodopsin from Natronobacterium pharaonis have been monitored by low-temperature static and by time-resolved step-scan Fourier transform infrared difference spectroscopy. In the low-temperature L spectrum anions only influence a band around 1650 cm(-1), tentatively assigned to the C=N stretch of the protonated Schiff base of L. The analysis of the time-resolved spectra allows to identify the four states: K, L(1), L(2), and O. Between L(1) and L(2), only the apoprotein undergoes alterations. The O state is characterized by an all-trans chromophore and by rather large amide I spectral changes. Because in our analysis the intermediate containing O is in equilibrium with a state indistinguishable from L(2), we are unable to identify an N-like state. At very high chloride concentrations (>5 M), we observe a branching of the photocycle from L(2) directly back to the dark state, and we provide evidence for direct back-isomerization from L(2). This branching leads to the reported reduction of transport activity at such high chloride concentrations. We interpret the L(1) to L(2) transition as an accessibility change of the anion from the extracellular to the cytosolic side, and the large amide I bands in O as an indication for opening of the cytosolic channel from the Schiff base toward the cytosolic surface and/or as indication for changes of the binding constant of the release site.