Structural effects of high laser power densities on an early bacteriorhodopsin photocycle intermediate
Time-resolved serial crystallography at X-ray Free Electron Lasers offers the opportunity to observe ultrafast photochemical reactions at the atomic level. The technique has yielded exciting molecular insights into various biological processes including light sensing and photochemical energy conversion. However, to achieve sufficient levels of activation within an optically dense crystal, high laser power densities are often used, which has led to an ongoing debate to which extent photodamage may compromise interpretation of the results. Here we compare time-resolved serial crystallographic data of the bacteriorhodopsin K-intermediate collected at laser power densities ranging from 0.04 to 2493 GW/cm<sup>2</sup> and follow energy dissipation of the absorbed photons logarithmically from picoseconds to milliseconds. Although the effects of high laser power densities on the overall structure are small, in the upper excitation range we observe significant changes in retinal conformation and increased heating of the functionally critical counterion cluster. We compare light-activation within crystals to that in solution and discuss the impact of the observed changes on bacteriorhodopsin biology.
Authors
- So Iwata (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1735-2937)
- Daniel James (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8348-6661)
- Claudio Cirelli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4576-3805)
- J. Standfuss (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8825-386X)
- Georgii Khusainov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3001-4046)
- Demet Kekilli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4422-923X)
- Michal Kepa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4045-3990)
- Eriko Nango (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9851-7355)
- Richard Neutze (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0986-6153)
- Tomoyuki Tanaka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9886-5947)
- Karol Nass (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8843-1566)
- Antonia Furrer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9894-6985)
- Gregor Knopp (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0786-3402)
- Chia‐Ying Huang
- Quentin Bertrand (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3476-1775)
- Per Börjesson
- Philip J. M. Johnson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7251-4815)
- Kensuke Tono (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1218-3759)
- Giorgia Ortolani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6373-9919)
- Rie Tanaka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1062-4792)
- Shigeki Owada (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1451-7612)
- Valérie Panneels (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8899-3366)
- Gebhard F. X. Schertler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5846-6810)
- Isabelle Martiel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1318-3830)
- Przemysław Nogły (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8040-7753)
- D. Ozerov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3274-1124)
- Sandra Mous (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3532-5978)
- Petr Skopintsev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6043-157X)
- Florian Dworkowski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5004-8684)
- Tobias Weinert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0339-3722)
- Steffen Brünle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8057-245X)
- Christopher J. Milne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4714-9139)
Institutions
- Jagiellonian University (PL)
- Kyoto University (JP)
- Paul Scherrer Institute (CH)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Japan Science and Technology Agency (JP)
- SPring-8 (JP)
- Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JP)
- University of Gothenburg (SE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2024-11-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54422-8
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Photoreceptor and optogenetics research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.88
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- Innosuisse - Schweizerische Agentur für Innovationsförderung