A recently discovered family of natural anion channelrhodopsins (ACRs) have the highest conductance among channelrhodopsins and exhibit exclusive anion selectivity, which make them efficient inhibitory tools for optogenetics. We report analysis of flash-induced absorption changes in purified wild-type and mutant ACRs, and of photocurrents they generate in HEK293 cells. Contrary to cation channe...

A highly sensitive carbon dot-imidazole (CD-imidazole) nanoprobe is prepared through covalently conjugating imidazole group onto the surface of carbon dots for water fluorescence. In organic solvents, quenching of fluorescence occurs via photoinduced electron transfer (PET) process from the imidazole nitrogen to the CD acceptor. Addition of a trace amount of water into CD nanocomposites in vari...

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to deconvolve the vibrational spectral features of the vapor-water interface based on molecular environment. A simple geometric description of hydrogen bonding is deployed to identify the OH stretch modes that comprise the vibrational sum-frequency spectrum of the vapor-water interface with direct comparison to our experimental results. The population den...

Ethoxy (EO) chain nonylphenol dehydrogenase (NPEO-DH) from Ensifer sp. AS08 and EO chain octylphenol dehydrogenase from Pseudomonas putida share common molecular characteristics with polyethylene glycol (PEG) dehydrogenases (PEG-DH) and comprise a PEG-DH subgroup in the family of glucose-methanol-choline (GMC) oxidoreductases that includes glucose/alcohol oxidase and glucose/choline dehydrogena...

Recent 3-D structures of several intermediates in the photocycle of bacteriorhodopsin (bR) provide a detailed structural picture of this molecular proton pump in action. In this review, we describe the sequence of conformational changes of bR following the photoisomerization of its all-trans retinal chromophore, which is covalently bound via a protonated Schiff base to Lys216 in helix G, to a 1...

UNLABELLED It has been predicted that the Rnf complex of Clostridium ljungdahlii is a proton-translocating ferredoxin:NAD(+) oxidoreductase which contributes to ATP synthesis by an H(+)-translocating ATPase under both autotrophic and heterotrophic growth conditions. The recent development of methods for genetic manipulation of C. ljungdahlii made it possible to evaluate the possible role of the...