[1FT-3] Protein/cellular functions, Imaging (1P-49～1P-61)

[1P-54*] New color turning residue discovered from enzyme rhodopsins

^○Masahiro Sugiura¹, Satoshi Tsunoda¹, Masahiko Hibi², Hideki Kandori¹ (1.Life Sci. Appl. Chem., Nagoya Inst. Tech., 2.Grad. Sch. of Sci., Nagoya Univ.)

Rhodopsin research world has largely progressed due to the discovery of numerous numbers of rhodopsin genes with new functions over the last decade. In addition, the discovery of channelrhodopsin led to the birth of "optogenetics," which enables manipulation of neural activity by light. In optogenetics, long-wavelength lights are desired because they can penetrate into deep animal tissues. Therefore, color control mechanism in rhodopsins attracts broad attention.
In 2019, eight rhodopsin phosphodiesterase (Rh-PDE) genes were reported¹. We successfully expressed six Rh-PDEs and measured absorption wavelength spectra². They were categorized into three groups in terms of absorption maxima. Two of them match with known color turning mechanisms. However, the third one could not be explained by the known mechanism.
In this presentation, we would like to discuss the newly discovered color turning mechanism.
1) Brunet et. al. Science (2019)
2) Sugiura et. al. ACS Omega (2020)