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Re-Introduction Of Transmembrane Serine Residues Reduce The Minimum Pore Diameter Of Channelrhodopsin-2, Robert Dempski, Ryan Richards
Re-Introduction Of Transmembrane Serine Residues Reduce The Minimum Pore Diameter Of Channelrhodopsin-2, Robert Dempski, Ryan Richards
Robert E. Dempski
Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) is a microbial-type rhodopsin found in the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Under physiological conditions, ChR2 is an inwardly rectifying cation channel that permeates a wide range of mono- and divalent cations. Although this protein shares a high sequence homology with other microbial-type rhodopsins, which are ion pumps, ChR2 is an ion channel. A sequence alignment of ChR2 with bacteriorhodopsin, a proton pump, reveals that ChR2 lacks specific motifs and residues, such as serine and threonine, known to contribute to non-covalent interactions within transmembrane domains. We hypothesized that reintroduction of the eight transmembrane serine residues present in bacteriorhodopsin, but …