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Article
Open AccessHijacking of internal calcium dynamics by intracellularly residing viral rhodopsins
Rhodopsins are ubiquitous light-driven membrane proteins with diverse functions, including ion transport. Widely distributed, they are also coded in the genomes of giant viruses infecting phytoplankton where t...
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Article
Mechanisms of inward transmembrane proton translocation
Proton transport is indispensable for cell life. It is believed that molecular mechanisms of proton movement through different types of proton-conducting molecules have general universal features. However, elu...
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Article
Open AccessSub-millisecond conformational dynamics of the A2A adenosine receptor revealed by single-molecule FRET
The complex pharmacology of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) is defined by their multi-state conformational dynamics. Single-molecule Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (smFRET) is well suited to quantify dy...
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Protocol
Development and Characterization of Flavin-Binding Fluorescent Proteins, Part II: Advanced Characterization
Flavin-based fluorescent proteins (FbFPs), a class of small fluorescent proteins derived from light-oxygen-voltage (LOV) domains, bind ubiquitous endogenous flavins as chromophores. Due to their unique propert...
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Article
Open AccessStructural basis for receptor selectivity and inverse agonism in S1P5 receptors
The bioactive lysophospholipid sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) acts via five different subtypes of S1P receptors (S1PRs) - S1P1-5. S1P5 is predominantly expressed in nervous and immune systems, regulating the egres...
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Article
True-atomic-resolution insights into the structure and functional role of linear chains and low-barrier hydrogen bonds in proteins
Hydrogen bonds are fundamental to the structure and function of biological macromolecules and have been explored in detail. The chains of hydrogen bonds (CHBs) and low-barrier hydrogen bonds (LBHBs) were propo...
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Article
Open AccessHigh-pressure crystallography shows noble gas intervention into protein-lipid interaction and suggests a model for anaesthetic action
In this work we examine how small hydrophobic molecules such as inert gases interact with membrane proteins (MPs) at a molecular level. High pressure atmospheres of argon and krypton were used to produce noble...
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Crystallization of Microbial Rhodopsins
Microbial rhodopsins are light-sensitive transmembrane proteins, evolutionary adapted by various organisms like archaea, bacteria, simple eukaryote, and viruses to utilize solar energy for their survival. A co...
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Electrophysiological Characterization of Microbial Rhodopsin Transport Properties: Electrometric and ΔpH Measurements Using Planar Lipid Bilayer, Collodion Film, and Fluorescent Probe Approaches
Electrophysiological approaches to the study of the activity of retinal-containing protein bacteriorhodopsin (bR) or other proteins of this family are based usually on measurements of electrical current throug...
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Protocol
Microbial Rhodopsins
The first microbial rhodopsin, a light-driven proton pump bacteriorhodopsin from Halobacterium salinarum (HsBR), was discovered in 1971. Since then, this seven-α-helical protein, comprising a retinal molecule as ...
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Protocol
Rhodopsin-Based Optogenetics: Basics and Applications
Optogenetics has revolutionized not only neuroscience but also had an impact on muscle physiology and cell biology. Rhodopsin-based optogenetics started with the discovery of the light-gated cation channels, c...
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E. coli Expression and Purification of Microbial and Viral Rhodopsins
Microbial rhodopsins have become an indispensable tool for neurobiology. Of thousands of identified microbial rhodopsins, a minute fraction has been studied so far and they have shown remarkable functional div...
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Article
Extreme dependence of Chloroflexus aggregans LOV domain thermo- and photostability on the bound flavin species
Light-oxygen-voltage (LOV) domains are common photosensory modules that found many applications in fluorescence microscopy and optogenetics. Here, we show that the Chloroflexus aggregans LOV domain can bind diffe...
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Article
Open AccessStructure-based insights into evolution of rhodopsins
Rhodopsins, most of which are proton pumps generating transmembrane electrochemical proton gradients, span all three domains of life, are abundant in the biosphere, and could play a crucial role in the early e...
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Article
Open AccessAuthor Correction: Small-wedge synchrotron and serial XFEL datasets for Cysteinyl leukotriene GPCRs
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-00759-w
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Article
Open AccessSmall-wedge synchrotron and serial XFEL datasets for Cysteinyl leukotriene GPCRs
Structural studies of challenging targets such as G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) have accelerated during the last several years due to the development of new approaches, including small-wedge and serial c...
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Article
Open AccessViral rhodopsins 1 are an unique family of light-gated cation channels
Phytoplankton is the base of the marine food chain as well as oxygen and carbon cycles and thus plays a global role in climate and ecology. Nucleocytoplasmic Large DNA Viruses that infect phytoplankton organis...
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Article
Open AccessMolecular mechanism of light-driven sodium pum**
The light-driven sodium-pum** rhodopsin KR2 from Krokinobacter eikastus is the only non-proton cation active transporter with demonstrated potential for optogenetics. However, the existing structural data on KR...
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Article
Open AccessOn the Origin of the Anomalous Behavior of Lipid Membrane Properties in the Vicinity of the Chain-Melting Phase Transition
Biomembranes are key objects of numerous studies in biology and biophysics of great importance to medicine. A few nanometers thin quasi two-dimensional liquid crystalline membranes with bending rigidity of a f...
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Article
Open AccessStructural basis of ligand selectivity and disease mutations in cysteinyl leukotriene receptors
Cysteinyl leukotriene G protein-coupled receptors CysLT1 and CysLT2 regulate pro-inflammatory responses associated with allergic disorders. While selective inhibition of CysLT1R has been used for treating asthma ...