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Science 15 September 2000:
Vol. 289. no. 5486, pp. 1902 - 1906
DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5486.1902
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Research Articles

Bacterial Rhodopsin: Evidence for a New Type of Phototrophy in the Sea

Oded Béjà,1 L. Aravind,2 Eugene V. Koonin,2 Marcelino T. Suzuki,1 Andrew Hadd,3 Linh P. Nguyen,3 Stevan B. Jovanovich,3 Christian M. Gates,3 Robert A. Feldman,3 John L. Spudich,4 Elena N. Spudich,4 Edward F. DeLong1*

Extremely halophilic archaea contain retinal-binding integral membrane proteins called bacteriorhodopsins that function as light-driven proton pumps. So far, bacteriorhodopsins capable of generating a chemiosmotic membrane potential in response to light have been demonstrated only in halophilic archaea. We describe here a type of rhodopsin derived from bacteria that was discovered through genomic analyses of naturally occuring marine bacterioplankton. The bacterial rhodopsin was encoded in the genome of an uncultivated gamma -proteobacterium and shared highest amino acid sequence similarity with archaeal rhodopsins. The protein was functionally expressed in Escherichia coli and bound retinal to form an active, light-driven proton pump. The new rhodopsin exhibited a photochemical reaction cycle with intermediates and kinetics characteristic of archaeal proton-pumping rhodopsins. Our results demonstrate that archaeal-like rhodopsins are broadly distributed among different taxa, including members of the domain Bacteria. Our data also indicate that a previously unsuspected mode of bacterially mediated light-driven energy generation may commonly occur in oceanic surface waters worldwide.

1 Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, CA 95039-0628, USA.
2 National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA.
3 Molecular Dynamics, Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Sunnyvale, CA 94086, USA.
4 Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, The University of Texas Medical School, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: delong{at}mbari.org.

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